The Darkness Within
by Alexander Eolo
Summary: This story will focus on Gabrielle's feelings for Xena, her fears, her hopes for the Warrior Princess, will she be able to contain the evil within the Warrior Princess? evil that thanks to a War God is now dangerously close to the surface, ready to blow up and destroy everything and everyone around it. Story will start from season 2 but from there it will have a life of its own
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** this is the first time ever that I write a story, I'm Italian, which means English is not my first language, so be kind please. any review, and critic that can help me is truly welcome! if I find at least one person who leaves a comment, likes the story or simply enjoys it, then just for that one guy I will continue this story I have planned for so long, and that I've finally decided to start writing

 _This great evil, where's it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doing this? Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we might've known? Does our ruin benefit the earth, does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night? – The Thin Red Line_

Chapter 1

 _It all started like any other day, the sun was up, shining in the sky and the birds were singing their songs, the warlords were being warlords and Xena, well Xena was being herself, punctually kicking their butts in the heat of battle. And that's when I saw it, once again, that shadows, looming over my friends eyes, that lust for violence and control over other people that slowly crept into her heart like an illness that would kill his host. It was there when we fought Kallias, it's here now I can see it clear as the day, I fear for her, I fear for the day that this evil will take over her heart_ and perhaps take her away from me one day she thought but those last words never made it to the scroll, instead she focused on her surroundings and soon she found herself looking at the woman of her scroll, returning from her hunting session, with a couple of rabbits in her hands.

"I see you took your time there, where they too cunning for the mighty warrior princess?" she said teasing her, referring to the poor creatures in her hands. "not that cunning if they still end up here". She punctually answered raising lightly her hands to prove her point

"point taken.." was the only answer Gabrielle could come up with and soon a slightly embarrassing silence crept over the couple, in which the two of them found themselves staring intently at each other, but soon those stares became smiles "and now what are you smiling for?" asked Xena "you're smiling as well" answered Gabrielle, trying to contain her laugh

"looks like we got a smartass over here" said Xena, with an un indecipherable look in her eyes, walking towards her bard, "do you want me to cook them or are you too cunning to let that happen?" she said, underlying the world cunning "not a chance, if we want to make it to tomorrow"

"hey..! it's not that bad" exclaimed an offended Xena "or is it?" she quietly added after an instant as an afterthought, Gabrielle smiled at that but soon her good heart took over her and words of comfort left her mouth towards the warrior princess "it is not that that bad, ok? I just don't want to take any chances" she said, yet maintaining a light tease in her words, reinforced with a smile.

After dinner they headed over to their bedrolls, looking forward to the next day to come, and the things it will bring. Gabrielle briefly thought about the words in her scroll, and to the warlords they fought few days ago, Kallias, he managed to escape them and she could tell that this was bothering her partner a lot, she didn't say a word about it, but this dark look that would take over her face and that anger, when they happened to be talking about him were all too evident and real. Truly few people managed to outsmart them whatever the reason was and Gabrielle was afraid that when the time will come for him, Xena's anger would cloud her judgment, and led her to do something stupid that they will later regrets. She believed in second chances and she had this unexplainable empathy for this guy. Yes he was a warlord and yes he did awful things but still, it wasn't their role to judge him, they were only supposed to stop him and deliver him to the local court, who will pass the sentence whatever that was, she didn't believe in personal justice and she promised to herself that she would stop Xena from doing something stupid if they ever crossed that bridge.

If they ever crossed that bridge. She thought about that again, and perhaps she realized that she was over worrying about this all thing and that she should trust Xena more. She finally decided that only time will tell who was right.

By the time the sun was at his highest in the sky they had reached the town of Abdera the small town that was located in southern Thrace, on the Aegean sea and quiet close to Xena's hometown, which Gabrielle earlier suggested to take a visit after this situation had been solved. They were now lead by the indications of a few town's folks towards the house of the village leader, heading there with the intention of discussing the incoming threats of the warlord Kallias. This place actually surprised Gabrielle, she half expected a few huts and maybe a tavern, yet in front of her eyes laid down a crowded and busy marketplace surrounded by houses and small shops, when they crossed the main street she realized the real extension of the city and a few paces away she spotted dozens of mainmasts, towering over the huts, from the fishing boats and the commercial vessel she guessed, and she truly was ecstatic at the prospect to perhaps have some fun while they were there, maybe Xena would find some time to go shopping with her she thought, peeking at the warrior princess on her side, hardly containing her enthusiasm, which wasn't going unnoticed by the warrior, in fact, She's been giving Gabrielle a few annoyed Glares, but at the end, powerless in front of the bard's pouting she gave up on their silent conversation with a snort

"you know" she started "you could go on and take a look around while I talk to the town's chief, what do you say?"

Xena asked, but obviously she didn't need an answer to her question, because if anything, the reaction on Gabrielle face was enough for an answer. "all right then" she continued her one sided conversation, trying to share the enthusiasm of her little companion who could barely contain herself on not jumping around her taller friend "works fine for me" she finally answered thinking to sound completely calm and composed yet ending up pretty far from that, which caused a genuine smile to leave Xena's lips while looking at her blonde girl. "so I'll see you in a couple of candlemarks in front of the chief's house ok? Do you know where it is? You remember how to get there?" she started, only to receive an eye roll from the little one "off course Xena, who you think I am?"

"I'm just making sure.."

"don't worry about me" the bard promptly interrupted her, "I'll see you later ok?"

"all right then" Xena finally gave up, "just stay out of trouble, will you"

"you know me..!"

"that's what I'm worried about.." she uttered under her breath, watching her bard leave her in the market's crowd, immediately feeling an inexplicable pull in her heart.

As soon as Xena left, the little bard started to walk around looking for something to buy, that she truly didn't need to, and that Xena would probably frown upon, she didn't even had to walk that far In all honesty for the first stall she came upon immediately caught her attention, there, between the countless items, and sundries a little parakeet among others had her fall in love with it, but unfortunately she had to look elsewhere for something else, again, in a short amount of time caught her attention, only this time, it was no parakeet, but a man.

There, standing between two huts, about 20 paces away, was a dark figure, studying the blonde girl, with a curious expression in his eyes, she barely had the time to study him back for as soon as he noticed that the pair of green eyes were looking back at him he was gone, disappeared in the dirty alley and in the streets of the city behind the market. But it was too late, for our bard is curious by nature, and sure that dark man aroused her curiosity more then she'd like to admit to herself, and now she found herself walking in the path between those two huts, following the steps of the mysterious figure she had seen but a few seconds ago, but the streets resembled more the one of a maze, no more than two feet wide and truly suffocating which inevitably led her to lose her path among the small houses and dirty alleys, so she decided to give up and head back to the market

".. only, which way is the market..?"

she vocalized the last part of her thoughts, taking a good look around she finally decided which way to go, but soon she found herself backing on her steps, looking for a new way to go, she suddenly felt her chest heavy, and her breath unsteady, she finally realized that she was lost and the first thing that come up on her mind was her warrior friend, who wasn't there this time to help her out. Collecting herself she headed off In a random direction hoping to find someone that was willing to help her out of here, she turned to the next alley, thinking what else could possibly go wrong "Xena's going to kill me this time.." she whispered to herself, failing to notice the shadow approaching from behind and soon she found a cold blade on her neck and a shadow on her back

"not if I kill you first"

Whispered back the shadow, not even letting her the time to scream for help.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: see ch1**

 **AN: Ok, first of all, thank you to the few amazing human beings who decided to like this story, follow this story or simply had the time to read it. I'll try to post the updates as soon as possible and again, any review, suggestion or critic is welcome and it could help me a lot! Also if you find any mistake please do not hesitate to contact me, this way I'll be able to correct them and update a better story for everyone, I try to avoid them obviously but sometimes a spelling mistake here or there may go unnoticed, and for that I apologize. But enough talking, Here is chapter 2, hope you'll enjoy it!**

 **Chapter 2**

When Xena finally left the master's house she looked down on the town that laid after her eyes, the last rays of sun were veiling the place in a golden coat, the people where finally moving back from their stalls and workplaces to their houses after another long day of work, she could smell the sea, emphasized by the light breeze that was gently blowing from the coast, and a couple of already drunken sailor remembered her that, in fact, this town revolved around the sea trade, yet her focus was elsewhere.

Looking around she noticed the laziness of this town who was now shutting down and getting ready for the night fast approaching, yet of her bard there was no trace. Gabrielle was supposed to meet her earlier in the town's hall but now that she was outside only stillness and quiet met her eyes. She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breath,

"come on where are you.." she muttered under her breath, and soon guilt took over her, she quickly thought that she shouldn't have left the bard alone, but what could possibly go wrong?! Maybe she was overreacting, she knew the little girl, sure Gabrielle was no kid, the blonde could take care of herself, the warrior thought, trying almost unconsciously to reassure herself, yet while on the outside she looked calm and composed the truth was that her hearth was in turmoil, her hands were cold and her breath shaky.

Quickly she decided to approach the market, targeting the merchant she had seen Gabrielle walk towards when she left her, once again thinking how stupid that was on her behalf to leave the girl, she fastened her pace until she reached the merchant's stall, luckily the poor man was still there, reorganizing his merchandize for the night to come. Xena quickly closed the gap to the man, approaching him with a fury raging in her heart, that she could barely contain.

"hey you!" started a not so diplomatic Warrior Princess

"yes?" answered the grey man, with an annoyed look, trying to hide the bit of fear he started to feel when he got a good look at the woman before him.

"you've been talking to a short, blond woman here a few hours ago is that right?" guessed an uncertain yet determinate Xena "she was wearing a green top and red skirt" she added.

"look" he started "I talk to a lot of people every single day if you haven't noticed, that's part of my job, how in hades can I rememb.."

He couldn't even finish his sentence for the Warrior Princess would have none of his crap and the fear that was now taking over her emotions started to show in her actions as well, she rudely grabbed the merchants collar and questioned him again with definitively a more direct approach

"If you care about your life you will answer me and you will answer me now or else I will not be held responsible for my next actions" she stated, looking straight into his eyes

"all right" he whispered, a touch of bitterness in his voice, now trying to remember the long day he had and the many girls he had seen, sure there where a few blond ones but none she could remember that matched the descriptions he received, and when his silence was met with icy blue eyes he suddenly was afraid, but his thoughts were cut off abruptly when in an instant the world become white and he felt like his head was about to explode, and tasted blood in his mouth. After what felt like an age he heard the voice of the Warrior Woman saying something about cutting off the flow of blood in his brain if he didn't collaborate so he immediately tried to agree in a desperate attempt to cling into his life for a few more minutes.

When he was faced with the same question again he tried to think harder, but the fear, mixed with the pain were making it impossible to do, so he desperately tried to give the woman some kind of answer more or less true that would please her, telling her that she had seen this blond girl head off towards the docks, and as quick as she come, the Warrior Princess was off in the pointed direction, and he, thanking a few gods, was back to his job.

But the Warrior Princess was no foul, she had seen through the man lies, and perhaps would have done something she would later regret if it wasn't for an old lady, catching the Warrior Princess attention.

Once again the warrior approached her target "hey" the warrior started again, way more diplomatic this time, "do you happen to have seen a short blond girl around here?"

"I only see evil" was the cryptic answer of the old lady, who now totally had Xena's attention "beware of the rage boiling inside you" she continued "for one day you will have to choose between your heart and your rage"

"are you a seer or something?" was the unamused answer she received, which she met with a smile

"I'm no seer young woman, I just saw how you treated that poor fella over there" simply explained the old lady, raising a bit her arm to prove her point towards the market, surprising Xena, who now started to feel guilty for her actions, daring almost unconsciously a quick peek behind her, towards the men's stall that was now empty. Finally completely realizing what she had done, she felt ashamed of herself, yet she had a job to finish, but inside her there was this inner turmoil who wasn't letting her think clearly, until the lady spoke again

"but I do have seen this girl of yours"

* * *

The first thing she felt when she woke up was the intense pain in the back of her head, groaning, she started to sit up from the cold ground which she was laid on, but the headache was strong and when she opened her eyes the world spun around her for a few heartbeats. Finally, after regaining her focus she started to look around, at the dark room she was in, lightened just by a few candles near the window. Thinking back of what happened in the last few hours, she suddenly thought of Xena and the man who attacked her and it come down to her that she was truly in a bad situation. Yet she was still alive, which was an unprecedented success she half thought, with a little bit of healthy sarcasm.

She suddenly heard the noise of a plate clashing against a wooden surface, coming from the far end of the room and turning her head around the blonde girl realized she wasn't alone, yet what she saw was not what she was expecting. In fact for the first time since she awoke, the bard fully realize where she was held hostage, and it was no dark dungeon or dirty tent of a warlord in the middle of nowhere. She realized, in fact, that she was in a common house, probably still somewhere in the city, and the eyes that where now looking straight into hers didn't belong to the one of an evil warrior or some ruthless warlord. No, they were the eyes of a worried man, sitting close to a woman that reminded Gabrielle of her own mother.

"so you finally woke up" started the short man, raising from his chair and starting to walk towards the bard with a plate in his hands, "here, have this, you must be hungry" he said, when he finally reached the blond, shoving the plate that contained a piece of cheese and some cold cuts on the floor in front of the girl.

"why are you doing this?" she asked, "who are you, why are you keeping me here?" continued the bard, picking up the speed in the last part of the phrase, slowly raising her chained hands to emphasize her point and also to grab the plate that she was offered, for she was indeed starving, after all.

"who I am or why I'm doing this is none of your business" was the cold answer from the man, "all that matters is that I know you are a friend of Xena, and that there are a lot of guys out there who would pay a pretty price for someone like you"

"you aren't going to sell me over the slavers?" asked a now worried Gabrielle

"who said anything about slavers"

Immediately the bard's mind started to search for any possible answer to that question but the more she thought about it and the more she realized that there was only one answer

"Kallias" she whispered

The man pretended to ignore that and started to walk back to the table when once again the bard vocalized her opinion

"you know, you don't have to do this" she said hopefully, trying to do what she does best: working her way out with words. "you seem like decent people, is she your partner?" she questioned, referring to the woman close to him, trying to start a conversation.

"we are married" answered the woman, with an annoyed expression, and that answer surprised once again Gabrielle for she couldn't understand why an apparently normal looking family would go from an everyday life to kidnappers the next day.

 _I mean there must be a reason for this, come on Gabrielle think! I need more time. All right I'll try to buy some time, after all Xena must be looking for me by now, they definitely don't look like warriors.._ she thought, looking around, and all of a sudden the answer to her questions came to light in the form of a small wooden toy with the shape of an horse, laying on the ground close to the fire.

"you have a child" Gabrielle asked, yet it ended up sounding more like a statement, and with a veil of sadness in her eyes she truly realize what was going on in this house, receiving a confirmation of her theory from the saddened look who appeared on the woman's face that soon searched comfort in her husband presence, and immediately the fear and anger that the blonde girl felt earlier left her, replaced with understanding and empathy, but unfortunately just before she could give a word of comfort to the family, an hurricane came down from the entrance door, ripping it apart from the weak hinges, and the fear and anger that had left Gabrielle earlier represented themselves in the form of the Warrior Princess.

Immediately Xena's eyes scanned the poorly lit room in search of her bard, who she quickly found, and left a breath of relieve she didn't know she was holding, her expression relaxed a bit, but it wasn't destined to last long, for now her focus was on the man standing near a table, a frightened expression in his eyes. He quickly made his move and tried to grab the kitchen knife laying but a few feet from him on the table, but unfortunately for him this sudden move wasn't going unnoticed by the dark warrior who was now back in a full fight mode and after letting out her piercing war cry she was on the man, kicking the blade out of his hands and in the same swift movement elbowing him in the jaw, but the man was tough and he would not let this chance at having something to offer to Kallias slip away, and the years in the fields made him though, and so, with immense rage and the force of pure desperation he started to hit back, at first surprising the woman, managing to assess a few punches on her side.

But Xena is a tough nut to crack and after the initial surprise she managed to recover rather quickly in fact and now she was turning the fight in her favor against the strong but inexperienced man, and with powerful blows to his head and torso she managed to regain the upper hand in the fight, but her rage was strong and the fear for loosing Gabrielle was still inside her, and when fear mixes with anger the effects are devastating, for when this happen, people will do things that they never thought were capable of doing, and Xena knew that very well from her past, yet she kept hitting the man even when he finally fall to the ground under the Warrior's assault, and that was her first mistake, let the rage blind her, for if it wasn't for Gabrielle's scream she wouldn't have noticed the woman there, picking up the knife, and so she immediately reacted, moving towards her new target kicking with ease the blade out of her hands and across the room. In a swift motion she kicked the woman on the stomach, lifting her from the ground and then watching her fall on her back on the cold ground a few feet away she smirked.

She started to move towards her, darkness in her eyes, she slowly raised her fist, ready to hit the target, a fury in her eyes, when, in the blink of an eye, she felt her foots leave the ground as well, the man must have rammed her to the ground, yet she only saw a blurry form. She immediately went into defensive mode and hit whoever dared to attack her, not realizing in fact that the one willing to do such outrageous act was the little blond girl, who somehow managed to get herself free. But it was too late for Xena to do anything, for the damage was already done and the punch had connected with the bard's temple before she could do anything to stop herself, almost knocking the bard out, a trickle of blood already leaving the bard's temple

"Gabrielle..?" whispered an horrified Warrior Princess, a look of surprise on her face, mixed with an unconscious sensation of betrayal

"Xena.." the bard whispered faintly

"don't move stay still" immediately said Xena, on the verge of crying, panic raising in her chest, trying to estimate the damage she had done to the one she love most

"don't move it's ok I got you, Gods, I'm so sorry Gabrielle"

"I'm so sorry" she repeated more to herself than to the bard, who was now falling unconscious

"it's ok" she said with the last bit of strength she had left before giving up to darkness


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Thank you to anyone reading this, there could be a delay in the updates for the next few days, but nothing to be worried about. As always, REVIEWS are welcome for they can help me write a better story for all, so please do not hesitate ok? I actually need them to know what can I do better, what I'm doing wrong and how to fix that, so any opinion matter to me. But enough talking! Enjoy**

 **AN: In this story there will be an explicit relationship between two women, nothing too graphical, mind me, but if just the idea of that bothers you then be advised**

 **Chapter 3**

 _Gabrielle, you are the best thing in my life, the most beautiful thing that happened to me, I realize now that you do not deserve me, for my love for you is endless but my actions keep getting you hurt. how many more times will I hurt you because of my doing, how many times will you suffer because of me? Is it worth it? Is it worth it kid? How many more times will you follow me, for how long will you stick with me, when will you have enough of this? And what if one day I'll hurt you beyond repair? What will happen then? Should I leave you? Would this be better for you? I know in my heart that I cannot do this, I cannot leave you, Perhaps I'm selfish, and I know that, but there is nothing I can do about it, it will destroy me, for even one day without you isn't worth living._

After the incident, she had carried the small girl across the town, into the healer's house, thinking back on the last few candlemarks and on the actions, that had caused all this, it felt like she was dying inside, as an invisible blade was piercing her belly, tearing her apart.

The sun was rising, chasing away the cold night that she had spent awake, next to Gabrielle, who was, as the healer said earlier, dealing with a minor concussion. Her thoughts went once again towards the girl who was now stirring from her sleep

"easy there" whispered the warrior princess, helping Gabrielle to find a more comfortable position to sit, worried as ever

"hey" whispered back the bard

"how do you feel?"

The bard stopped moving for once and tried to look around, the world slightly spinning around her for the second time in a day she thought, she then focused on the blurry figure in front of her

"whoa, why is there three of you in here?"

"what?" was the only thing that the tall warrior managed to say, arching her eyebrows in a confused expression, before making room to the man close to her, who happened to be the healer

"he is Damianos, he's the town's healer" she started explaining to the confused bard

"he helped me take care of you" finished Xena, now standing close behind the man in question who suddenly raised two fingers in front of the blond girl

"how many fingers do you see?" he asked in his calm voice

"well two of course!" answered an indignant bard

"and two more in each hand, making it a grand total of 6 fingers" continued the bard, with a smile on her face, proud of her lucidity.

"also my head hurt"

"alright just try to sit still, will you?" cut short the healer, who now had approached the Warrior Princess

"she isn't going anywhere for the next sun cycle, do you understand?" finally decided the healer in a serious tone, after a short reflection "she still has to fully heal from the concussion, which means she will stay here under observation for the next day and night, and then after that we will go from there and see what to do" further explained the man, leaving no room for any other decisions.

"fine for me" was the short answer from the warrior

"but Xena, what about Kall..." the blond girl started to say, trying to sneak into the conversation that was held before her

"no buts Gabrielle, we are staying here no matter what"

"I'm sure we can give him a head start of one day. We'll get him later eventually, all that matters now is you" further explained a slightly angry Warrior Princess, referring to the warlord Kallias and his now more luckily escapes from Xena's grasp.

"but we were so close! Xena, look, I can go with you, we can stop him..." she started once again trying to sit up farther in bed, but soon regretting this decision when her vision became white for a few second and she found herself laying on his back once again on the soft bed, a sharp pain in her head that within a few heartbeats was gone, but those few heartbeats where more than enough for her to understand the situation she was in.

Suddenly the pain in her head was replaced by the memory of the night before and a look of fear and mistrust carved its place in the bard's alignments when she looked towards her companion.

"when will you stop acting like a child!" Xena started to scold her, trying to infuse some common sense in the short girl, not noticing the change of expression in her face.

"when will you stop acting like a warlord!?" she yelled back, anger in her eyes, and a growing pain in the back of her head.

The only answer she met after her outburst was complete silence. Finally, after many heartbeats of starring each other, the surprised look who appeared on Xena's face was replaced by one of sorrow, but before she could say anything Damianos moved her away from Gabrielle, trying to maintain her patient calm, removing the source of pain from the blonde girl, and so avoiding any further damage to her.

"hey, she should relax for the next few candlemarks, and yelling at each other like that isn't the definition of relax" he muttered in an annoyed tone, after moving the warrior a few paces away from the small girl. Giving up quickly and without a word, the Warrior Princess moved away from the healer and his patient, soon finding her feet leading her outside the house and towards the stall where earlier they had left Argo. She needed time, time to think and cool down, this all situation was a mess after all, her mess. Since she came into this cursed town she did nothing but messing things up and now it was the best time for her to just clear her mind of all the things that happened. She needed that to move forwards and go from there, to formulate a plan of action and a strategy for the next days.

With a hurried pace, she covered the short distance between the house and the stables, soon she found herself relaxing in the presence of her loyal mare, who had been waiting impatiently for the last day. With words of excuse she started taking care of her horse, grooming her sides and feeding her with the hay stocked a few feet from the stable in a stall nearby. Once Argo was well fed she released her from the wooden post and started to ride her trough the town gates and within a few heartbeats she was out in the fresh air, leaving behind the smelly roads and crowded alleys of Abdera. Riding north, she passed across a few corn fields and a factory, stirring a few worried peasants with her passage. Eventually the heat of the day got to her as well, prompting her to stop and let her horse rest awhile. Assessing the sun's position in the sky she estimated the time, and realized it must have been around midday now, she had been riding Argo for a good part of the morning without even realizing it.

"still mad that I left you in the stable?" she half asked, a slight smile forming on her lips

"guess this little trip make up for it, uh?" she said, founding confirmation of her guess when Argo started to rub his head on the Warrior Princess in a playful manner and then decided to trot a few paces away picking on a bush nearby and nibbling at it, causing a full smile to spread on her owner's face.

 _At least someone is happy here_ she thought suddenly, and her smile soon disappeared from her face for the weight of her actions back in the town returned to grieve on her shoulders

 _What shall I do with you Gabrielle? I love you with every inch of my soul but my actions keep getting you hurt, and it's not like you are making it any easier, now isn't it? Always managing to get into some trouble. What if one day I'm not there to protect you? What will be of me? I fear that the only sanity left in me is there because of you. You are the only thing keeping me whole, that is giving me a purpose._

 _And then there's this asshole..._

Her thoughts were cut short when she realized that her safe heaven here in the middle of nowhere just became Tartarus, all because of a War God who decided to show up and ruin a perfect day, well, not a perfect day, far from it, she considered, but it still managed to get worst, which was remarkable.

"hello Ares"

* * *

".. and then she realized her mistake along with the meaning of the word kaltaka, avoiding further bloodshed. We managed to stop the horde that day but we had to pay a heavy price for that.

"Is she always like that?" was the question posed by Damianos to the blond girl who wasn't short of words he discovered in the time he had spent with her since the warrior had left the two of them.

"sometimes she scares me, you know, I feel like I've been knowing her for all my life, as if she was a part of me, and I know there is good in her, I have sure of it, perhaps she doesn't even realize it, sometimes she doesn't give herself enough credit for it"

"But no" she continued "she's not like that, if you have the time to look at her you'll see that behind her mask there is indeed a loving person, with a caring heart, and it hurts me that she is so afraid to show that part of herself, mistaking it for some kind of weakness or worst"

"I see, but I still don't understand why the horde just left like that, I mean, those awful creatures only know war and bloodlust, why..." he started questioning again but it was interrupted by the impatient bard who soon had to rebut

"those were no evil creatures, but people like us, who also have feelings, and suffer the same we do, and grieve, so when they saw that compassion was offered to them, instead of a blade, they saw the opportunity to end all of it, end the pain and suffering that our actions were causing to each other, because it is through compassion that the circle of hatred and violence can be disrupted, and love" she added with a strong voice despite her conditions.

"think what you will young lady, but I still don't see how love and compassion will stop a sword" finally decided the gruff healer, causing a look of exasperation to leave the bard, who tried to find new words to help her out on her mission to change the healer's mind

"you know you should listen to her, she's wiser than most men in that aspect. I learnt the hard way to listen at her words" was the unexpected help she received, coming from the Warrior Princess herself, who seemed appeared form thin air in the small house. One of her many skills apparently

"Xena!"

"where have you been? You had me worried, you've been gone for hours, don't you leave me like that, I'm..." started ranting the girl but soon her rant was interrupted by a look from the warrior, who now calmly approached the bed

"I'm sorry I left like that, I had to sort things out, how you feel?" she asked, watching the healer move away from the couple to give them some privacy

"Gabrielle" she continued, not even giving her the time to respond at her own question "I'm truly sorry for what happened to you, what I did to you" she stated, the pain from pronouncing those words clear as day in her eyes

"will you forgive me?"

"Xena..."

"I know that if haven't been so quick with my judgment on those people perhaps we would have avoided this all situation..."

"Xena, there is nothing to forgive" cut short the bard, leaving no room for any misunderstanding, a loving look in her eyes.

She then reached out for Xena's hands and held it tight, then, searching for her face she lost herself on those watery blue eyes of hers and time seemed to slow down for in that one moment there were only two people in the whole world, and that's when she realized that nothing or no one will ever tear them apart for they belonged to each other, each balancing the other.

* * *

A few days later they were back on track, following Kallias across the countryside, picking up worrying news from the local farmers and merchants who were claiming that the man was currently using the village of Zaros as a base, lurking the village's folk in his band with the prospect of gold and wealth from the raids of the nearby towns, and what was worst, he apparently was interested in the land of the centaurs, just a few days' ride from his current hideout.

"how can you be so sure of that?" tried again Xena, surprised by the farmer's words, he was proving right her fears for the Centaurs, claiming he too had seen raiders moving towards the forest near the centaur borders, scouts most likely from the description she was given, probably sent by the warlord.

"I'm telling you what I saw, and those people were bearing his banners and colors" He repeated once again, leaving no more room for any doubt in the Warrior Princess

"if this is true then you people should lay low for a while, find shelter, and remain hidden until we stop him" she said to the few people that had gathered around her and Gabrielle

"we'll do what we must to survive, as always, but you cannot ask us to hide forever" stated the old man "please try to be quick, it will save us from a lot of problems" he added, a bit of doubt in his voice.

"it won't be long, I promise"

"come on let's go" she told the bard, spurring her horse to move forwards near the last known location of the scout party, hoping to pick up their tracks from there.

"What are we going to do Xena? From what they say he has gathered too many men for us to stop him, we can't just walk there and kick everyone's butt" stated her thoughts the worried blonde

"and if this thing with the centaurs is true then we must send word to them"

"I know!" harshly said the Warrior Princess, half scaring Gabrielle, but soon recovered, In a quieter tone

"don't worry, they'll be advised, we'll just need to find one of those scout parties out there and question them the old way"

"if we are lucky we'll stop them before they even reach the centaurs" she added with a half grin, looking towards her bard.

A couple of candlemarks later, right before sunset, they reached the borders of the centaurs' lands, half a day ride from their main town. Deciding to call in a day, they found a place to make camp well hidden in the cover of the nearby woods.

"Xena" started the bard, after a hesitant moment, sitting down in front of the campfire

"when I was kidnapped, well, they did it because..."

"I know, they're child was in the hands of Kallias" answered shortly Xena, who had to further explain herself to calm the surprised bard, sitting next to her and close to the fire.

"when I knocked... when you were out, I had the chance to talk to them, it wasn't easy but they weren't trying to fight me at least" carrying on she added more details

"they explained me their situation and pointed me to the healer house, they did it for you" she cut short

"you tend to have this effect on people" a note of regrets in her voice

"anyway" she continued "they also explained me that Kallias has kidnapped many men, women and children from around the area and sold them to slavers. The thing I discovered is that he has a list of everyone who has been sold and where, this way he can control those people, in exchange for favors he can always track the slaves back and return them to their families if they do his bidding, you understand that?"

"so he's blackmailing them" she realized, a saddened look in her eyes "I was their best chance to get their kid back"

"I don't know about that Gabrielle; I don't even know if this list is real in the first place"

"but if it is, if we find that paper we could track them down ourselves and free these people" she started, three steps ahead as always, watching hopefully the dark silhouette of the warrior on her side, lightened by fire

"first thing first" she said "we need to find him first and then we'll see how it goes from there, ok?"

"sounds like a plan" she said, a half smirk forming on her lips

"what is it now?" she asked noticing said smirk

"try to hit the actual enemy this time" she alluded at the incident of a couple of days ago, still smirking

"you little shit"

"what!? I just want to make sure you won't hit any poor innocent person when we get there"

Then out of nowhere the Warrior Princess had tackled mercilessly the poor bard from her sitting position and into the ground, towering over her. she had her arms blocked under hers, faces but a few inches from each other, immediately removing the annoying smirk on the bard's face, replaced by something else that she couldn't quiet place.

"and do tell me" she started, the mischievous look in her eyes "what would an innocent little girl be doing on the battlefield?" she asked, still laying on top of the prone bard, blue meeting green eyes

"she's just making sure that some warlord isn't going for a killing spree I imagine" she answered cunningly, returning the mischievous look

"you always find your way out with words uh? Always have the answer ready" she smirked, teasing the girl

"how will you escape this, _Gabrielle_ " she purred her name, sending chills to the backbone of the trapped bard

 _I got you good this time kid_ she thought, staring intently at those lips in front of her

She felt her chest rise in anticipation, holding her breath, her heart beating a thousand times faster until the moment those lips met each other half way, it was nothing but a heartbeat, just a moment and it was over, but it was enough, she had kissed the girl and suddenly felt a rush of energy inside her. She could have spent the whole night looking into those mesmerizing green eyes of hers but then she seemed to come back to her senses and laid off the blonde girl, not noticing the lustful look she was giving her

"let's go to sleep" she said finally, screaming inside, rolling over to her side of the sleeping bag

"goodnight Xena"

"night Gabrielle"

A dumb grin finding his way on the Warrior Princess' lips


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hey guys sorry for the delay, in this month of January it will be hard for me to keep regular updates because I have a lot of exams, so until February you may see less frequents updates but I'll try my best! Anyway, here's chapter 4! And as usual, I hope you'll enjoy it and please be kind and review!**

 **Chapter 4**

It was still dark when Xena awoke, with the light fighting against the retreating darkness of the night, giving way to the pale fog of the morning, next to her, curled up in a ball, was the sleepy bard, trying as well to fight against the oncoming day to get a few hours of sleep from the Warrior Princess, fight that unlike the other, she was indeed losing against the restless warrior.

A few beats later she finally gave up and started to awake, performing a series of grunts and noises worthy of any self-respected dryad.

"come on, wake up sleepyhead, rise and shine!" inevitably started Xena, but unfortunately the only answer she received was more undecipherable sounds from the bardic creature who was finally rising from her kingdom under the blanket.

"come on bardie, the sun is up, shining in the sky and we've got a lot of work to do!"

"but it's still dark..." punctually countered the small girl

"nonsense, come on, here" cut short the warrior, lowering close to the blond, handing her a piece of food for breakfast.

"how long have you been awake?"

"oh not even a quarter of candelmark I think" and added "I've been thinking for a while"

"have you"

"yeah"

"There is something else at work here Gabrielle, someone is helping him, I know that, we just need to find out who..." she said thoughtfully.

And then she was up on her feet, packing up the few things they possessed

"come on Gabrielle, get up, we gotta move"

"all right, all right, I got it" finally answered the sleepy bard trying to shake away the sleep left from her.

After a quick breakfast, about a candelmark later, they were back on track, approaching the centaurs' land as they have planned, by the time the heat of the day started to make way into the chill of the morning they reached the outskirt of town, where, after a brief conversation with the head of the guards, they were introduced to the leader of the centaurs, Kaleipus, but the attention of the bard was not on the half horse half man standing before here, engaged in a friendly conversation with the Warrior Princess, her attention was for once on the surroundings, green eyes were scanning the huts and houses neatly ordered across the grassy street, and the curious faces that every now and then were peeking at the newcomers with a surprised expression.

But soon enough she realized that the one person, or child in this case, that she was looking for was nowhere in sight. Slightly disappointed she focused her attention back on the imposing figure next to her, who must have noticed her distraction, for both him and Xena where now looking expectantly at the small bard, who suddenly found her hands truly interesting

"Gabrielle" started the Warrior Princess in her typical tone

"he's offering us to stay in the village for a couple of nights, is it fine for you?"

"oh uhm yeah, sure!" quickly blurted out the embarrassed bard, showing her best smile, to make up for her prior lack of attention, immediately receiving a smile back from her warrior. Soon the smile left her face and the deal was made, they would spend the next few days with the Centaurs until the threat of the warlord was foiled. Once again the blonde girl started to think about the implication of such decision, they will eventually encounter Solan, Xena's son, and she wondered what would her companion do this time. Once again, looking in the warrior's eyes Gabrielle realized that the tall woman must have been thinking something along the same line for now she was seeing a distant look from those piercing blue eyes, far away in the thoughts of the same boy she assumed. She kept her stares, hoping that Xena would find the courage to eventually tell the truth to the boy, but at the same time she knew deep in her heart that this was not the case when the only answer she received from their silent conversation was a cold look from piercing blue eyes. The secret was going to be kept and she was to stay out of it.

Suddenly the centaur voiced his worries about the warlord once again, effectively taking away Xena from the thoughts of her son, bringing her back to the reality of the moment, and the treat that she was supposed to stop. In a heartbeat, she was back with her warrior mask on, subtle changes in her alignments that even the bard could barely catch but knew that they were there. Perhaps this fight wasn't over yet.

She quickly lost interest in the conversation and just pretended to pay attention to it until they were dismissed and started to move towards their temporary home, which was just a small hut shy of the main road that traveled across the village. She didn't even finish to unpack her things that Xena was already leaving for a scouting mission, trying to figure out the real level of the threat they were facing, and anything else that could help them out to stop it. Obviously, Xena didn't feel like taking the blond girl with her, leaving her behind in the village, huffily thought the offended bard. She was left behind once again like some kid.

Shortly after the warrior had left our bard was getting bored of waiting and decided to take a walk around the village, taking in the unusual sights of the centaurs, that no matter how many times you had seen them they still seem to surprise you she thought, looking once again towards them, living peacefully with other humans. She rejoiced at the sight of human children playing along with the centaurs, for the children don't know the meaning of prejudice and hate, unlike too many men, she suddenly realized that in their eyes they were no different, besides the physical aspect they were all the same: children. Playmates, sure some with four legs and other with two. She half smiled at that thought.

Soon she found out that her thoughts had brought her away from the main road and now she was out of the village, closing to the hills surrounding it. In that same moment, she realized that she wasn't alone, for a pair of eyes where starring at her from the top of a branch just a few feet in front of her

"and what you think you are doing up there, kid?"

"come down before you break your neck" she half joked, revealing a smile when the answer she received was just a raspberry.

"I can take care of myself you know?" finally decided to answer the stubborn boy, elegantly descending off the tree, face first on the ground

"you have a weird way of showing it, you know?" laughed the blonde girl trying to help the poor boy, shaking off some of the dirt off his clothes

"that usually doesn't happen"

"oh that's good to know, it tends to help when you actually land on your feet" she teased "have you ever tried it?"

"oh ah-ah, am I sensing a bit of sarcasm there?"

"sure not from me Solan" she said, smiling at the boy who was now hugging her, dropping his stoic mask and showing his happiness for the presence of the bard

"ough! What was that" said the bard, taken by surprise by the sudden move and almost losing her balance as well

"I missed you guys! You and Xena, is she here too?" suddenly asked the excited boy at the prospect of seeing his favorite Warrior Princess

"I uhm, yeah, I mean she isn't here right now but she'll come back soon" she hesitantly answered to his question, flaunting an open smile to cover her embarrassment.

Soon enough they started walking in a random direction chatting nonstop on the road, for it was in their nature to do so and immediately they found themselves comfortable in each other presence, telling stories of the adventures they had faced, until they found their feet almost unconsciously leading them back to town.

When they reached it they came upon an enraged Warrior Princess, already back from her scouting mission, engaged in a discussion with Kaleipus. Apparently, her expedition had been a success, Kallias' army was marching towards the village, they discovered, and it counted around 350 men and a hundred riders, many of them from the town of Zaros as Xena had feared. Our forces, instead, counted in a hundred centaurs strong and a few hundred men, although many of them were not warriors but simple merchants or farmers. Xena had to immediately take actions and at least try to slow down the approaching army to buy some time for the defenders.

The warrior had spent the afternoon training as many man as she could muster in the art of battle. Obviously considering the short amount of time in her disposition she had mainly taught them how to defend themselves and not throw away their lives pointlessly in battle, as she was about to state her plane to the leader a sudden commotion caught her attention.

There, about 30 paces away was the source of this turmoil, where a centaur was making his way through a small crowd, holding with his bloodied hands an arrow that had pierced his stomach.

They had just run out of time.

Immediately the Warrior acted and made her way towards the confused crowd surrounding the injured centaur, covering In a few beats the short distance

"what happened?" asked Xena, quickly trying to assess the damage the arrow had caused, soon realizing that she could do few things to save the unfortunate guy

"they're coming" told him with a painful expression, his hands bloodied, he locked eyes with the warrior before him who was now trying to stop the bleeding, but the emphatic look he was receiving was enough for him to understand the real extension of the damage made

"leave it" he finally said, taking hold of the warrior's hands, successfully halting her. Slowly he found himself lowering towards the ground, his forces leaving him at once

"what's your name?" asked the woman, trying to help the centaur to lay down, a clear understanding of the situation

"Xanthe"

"Xanthe, how much time do we have?"

"I don't know, probably a quarter of candelmark, maybe less, I'm sorry"

"It's ok, we are getting through this"

"I'm sorry" he repeated faintly

"it's ok, you made it here, you've saved many lives already by telling us"

"Xanthe...?"

Silence.

The centaur after his last breath stood still, unmoving. Xena silently sent a prayer to the gods and raised his eyes to the person immediately standing in front of her, among the crowd she was met by watery green eyes, she could see in them that the owner was barely holding it, next to her was her son, Solan, who seemed out of his mind, shocked beyond words, starring at the body on the ground in front of him.

"Gabrielle"

"Gabrielle!" repeated once again Xena, this time with a more empathic tone. Once she got the bard's attention she continued "take Solan to our hut and stay with him for the rest of the day"

"but Xena…"

"Just do it, take him away and protect him"

"please"

She was met with hesitant eyes, and for once she hoped that the bard would make this easier and go without a fight

"ok"

* * *

"we need help, we cannot do this on our own, send word to the amazons, we need their help"

"and hurry!" she added, to the first centaur she could find. _If he wants a fight, he'll have one_

She quickly rallied the troops around her and started to march towards the approaching enemy, with them they had brought several wagons from the village, the rhythmic sounds of hundreds of feet marching together once again reaching her ears. The fear, the excitement for the oncoming battle that once she desperately craved was still there, in this precise moment. Gods she missed it she briefly thought to herself, before leading the small improvised army up on the hills and bushes covering the access to the village on the eastern side. There, she will meet Kallias and his army. The amazons where just a one or two candlemarks away, in the dense forest lying on the borders of the centaur's land, if they hurried they could still make it in time for the battle. There were still about two hours of light left when their scouts established contact with the enemy vanguard and so they just waited on their fortified position on the hill top

Next to her, standing proud was the leader of the centaurs, Kaleipus, cold and calm, as the great leaders of old, standing proud in the face of death. In moments like this Xena truly envied people like him, who seemed to have this inner peace radiating from themselves, infusing a sense of courage and hope in the nearby men.

Few beats later the sound of the enemy's march became clear and distinct, and shortly after from the hilltop in front of them the first few heads and banners came into view, immediately followed by the screams and sounds of the centaur's horns, confirming as well the presence of the enemy to the troops. For a few moments, the two armies stood their ground facing each other in the distance until the order was given and the enemy started to descend into the small valley between them and soon walking their way up to the fortified hill. They didn't have much time to do anything important, in fact their defenses relied mainly on a small ditch and a couple of feet behind it there was the line of overturned wagons, used as some kind of wall along the whole length of the hill

When the firsts enemy men where within reach the few slingers among their ranks started to rotate the slings, emitting the typical humming that was distinctive of the weapon. Soon the firsts lead balls found their way in the enemy lines with devastating effect. The slingers who climbed on top of the wagons started intensifying their fire until the enemy had to create some sort of shield walls, spurred by their commander effectively reducing their loss. But this was no roman testudo and the discipline of the roman legions was far away from the wild army in front of her Xena thought, with a half-smile on his face and their losses although reduced where still hampering their advance.

Finally, when the first man where within ten feet of the barricade Xena ordered the shooters to leave their ground to the men equipped with swords and spears, while the centaurs where kept back and would act as a reserve. In a few beat the first wave had reached the wagons' line and some started to climb it while others tried to remove the wooden boards using their swords as levers to break it down.

* * *

"I'm going to help them"

"Solan wait" exclaimed again the annoyed bard barely succeeding at containing the teen

"I want to avenge him!" he spit, anger in his voice, referring to the dead centaur, who had left a strong impact on Solan's mind

"how?" asked the exasperated bard "by dying as well?"

"think about it for a moment, what difference you think you can make?" she explained again, trying to reason with the stubborn kid, placing herself between the boy and the door of the hut

"I want to fight!" almost screamed Solan, in a fit of anger, hasty to prove himself in combat

"please Solan, please listen to me, what would your m…" she almost revealed to much and soon corrected her shot

"what do you think you will accomplish if you just get yourself killed?" tried again, approaching it from a different line

"you know you shouldn't keep him here, it's perfectly normal, he wants to fight, I understand that" eagerly said a dark voice behind the bard

with a start she turned herself around to face the owner of that voice, only to find herself starring at a hooded man, standing behind her nothing but three feet shy of her

"Ares" Gabrielle whispered, trying to contain her fears and doubts

"after all you are not his mother, are you?" Continued the God, removing his hood to reveal his face and taking a step forward, forcing Gabrielle to take a step backward, partially covering the small figure now behind her.

"what is it that you want?" asked the worried bard, taking a quick glance at her staff, that was laid against the wall on her right, just a few paces away but still too far.

"you think you can be fast enough?" asked the dark figure, noticing her look towards the staff, slowly drawing his sword causing a fit of panic to find his way in the blonde's heart that she tried to hide behind almost calm green eyes, but her shaky breath was all too revealing for the expert warrior standing before her.

Suddenly she went for it, she gave it her best shot and she tried, Gabrielle tried, she went for her staff but the God of War was no match for her and in a heartbeat, he had drawn his sword, covered the short distance between the two of them and knocked the bard out with the hilt of his sword

Without paying much attention to the now unconscious body of the blonde girl, now laying at his feet he focused his attention on the boy, and an evil grin escaped his mouth, for that was his real target this time.

* * *

Back in the battle the situation was critical the wall was pierced in several places and the enemy had managed to create a bridgehead, they were also trying to flank them and the centaurs, now deployed on the sides, where barely holding. She looked at the forest on their back yet of the amazons there was no trace, if they wouldn't come within the next few minutes this battle would become a bloodbath. Soon the remaining light of the day would wear off and the battle would turn into chaotic individual fights with no chance of distinguishing who was friendly or not.

"retreat! Retreat! Into the woods!" screamed the warrior princess, hoping to gain some more time in the vegetation covering their back. Immediately the firsts men started to turn their back on the enemy and run in the direction showed, soon followed by others until as a wave, the whole front line started to give up the ground to the enemies while the defenders sought cover in the woods about 200 paces away, leaving a trail of deaths and wounded behind them.

Soon the enemy had reorganized himself, founding new energies and inspiration from their retreat and so they started their final attack on the few remaining defenders.

When the first man was a few paces away from the line of the woods an arrow that came out of nowhere pierced his neck and left him bleeding to the ground, immediately more arrows had followed, halting the enemy's attack.

With a look, above her, the Warrior Princess could see that the first amazons had arrived and were already picking their targets with their hunting bows, shortly behind them were more of the lethal warriors, reinforcing the lines of men and centaurs that with newfound energy and moral had now counterattacked the enemy line, turning the table in their favor.

After a thunderous scream and a brief charge the two sides collided in one confused line, suddenly the enemy general, Kallias, came into view while he was trying to rally his troops around him. Immediately Xena caught that opportunity and with her typical war cry she started to advance towards the man, somersaulting the warriors standing between her target, and neatly landing just a few feet away from him.

"looks like the tides have been turned" exclaimed the woman, with a feral grin on her face, stalking towards the pray

"it's not over yet Xena!" screamed the warlord, drawing his sword and charging the Warrior Princess in a desperate attempt to save the situation.

Immediately the two blades came in contact, resulting in a series of sparks. They exchanged a few blows when finally, Xena, took the upper hand in the fight and managed to disarm the man. She was about to deliver the final blow when a familiar voice interrupted her.

There in the middle of the chaos of the ending battle was the figure of a boy bringing his hands to his chest where a mortal wound had left his marks. Immediately the boy had fallen to his death, encountering the ground under him and soon disappearing in the chaos surrounding him

"Solan…?" whispered a horrified and confused warrior princess, that as soon as she heard a laugh coming from the man kneeling before her didn't think twice about it and in one swift motion decapitated the warlord, effectively putting an end to his reign. She then turned her attention to the boy that had fallen a few paces away from her, as the world around her was going in slow motion, she didn't care anymore about the battle, the centaurs, Kaleipus and the dying man all around her, she had one imagine in her mind and the increasing realization of what just happened was already tearing her apart and driving her mad.

Finally, she found the boy laying prone on the ground, his face covered in the mud of the battlefield. With shaky hands, she approached the still body and slowly started to turn him around. As soon as his face came into view every doubt, every hope she might had just vanished, and she felt like the whole world came crushing down, into her, the weight of Solan's dead crushing her to the ground, hardly making it possible for her to breath.

Solan was dead

Realization came upon the Warrior Princess in a fit of anger and desperation

 _they will pay for this, Zaros will pay for this_

 _Gabrielle… she was supposed to keep him safe, where was she?_

A single tear escaped the warrior's eye, streaming down his face and falling in the bloodied ground mixed with hate and the pure rage she was feeling

They will _all_ pay for this.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Hey guys thank you for reading this story,** **I am currently looking for a beta reader** **and If anyone would like to give it a shot then please do contact me! in this chapter I was vaguely inspired by Star Wars and it's probably one of the darkest one, but I believe that "the night is darkest just before the dawn" so don't worry, hopefully it will get better in the future.**

Chapter 5

 _I'm gonna find, and I'm gonna kill, every last one of them_

her hands, bloodied where now holding the lifeless body of her son, the pain she was in was such that no bard would be able to narrate on his tales, her heart tainted by darkness and rage for the loss of her child.

Suddenly in her mind formed the imagine of yet another loved one who she had buried, many seasons ago. Was this any different from her brother Lyceus, the Warrior Princess thought briefly, is history going to repeat itself. _Know this, I swear on the gods, they will all pay for this, my dear son._

The sounds of hooves brought her back to reality. Kaleipus was approaching and soon he felt like Zeus himself punched him in his stomach for the pain he discovered looking at the kid in Xena's arms, it truly was unbearable, yet he remained calm, hiding his pain behind a stoic a mask.

"it wasn't supposed to go this way" he sadly stated, with the rest of the survivors grouping around them

Xena must have noticed that as well for now she raised her voice as to speak to the whole crowd standing there

"my friends" she started, starring at the amazons in the group as well

"today many of us lost someone they loved, a friend, a brother. I have lost a son" she ignored the surprised looks and whispers and continued

"the people who attacked us today in this cowardly manner, will pay for this!" she spitted in a vengeful tone

"the town of Zaros, and the other people behind this attack tried to wipe us out of the earth, to them, we are nothing but a bunch of hooves and harlots, an annoyance who needs to be removed"

"I know what I'm asking, many of you already has suffered greatly, many of you has seen too much death to find the will to fight once more. But I guarantee you, if we let this act of war go unpunished then we are condemning ourselves to certain death. I say we fight, for our family, for our people, for the right to live in peace and prosperity in our lands!"

"I say it's time for payback" she whispered in a lower tone

"who is with me"

A roar erupted from the crowd and spears and swords, raised high in the darkening sky, filled with the sound of cheers of men, centaurs and amazons, all united under one person, her name echoing in the empty valley below them. They were ready for war

Only one Centaur had left to the sound of the words of the Warrior Princess

* * *

The sun was quickly leaving his place to the darkness of night when Gabrielle came to senses. Confused and astonished she took a few staggering steps around, looking for Solan. She couldn't remember exactly what happened yet the pulsating pain in the back of her head told her that she either had passed out or someone knocked her out. Which was becoming worryingly frequent she managed to think, before heading out of the hut, a shadow of doubt and fear crept around her.

She touched the back of her head with her hand and discovered a few drops of blood on top of her fingers but she promptly ignored it and headed outside, a bed feeling taking place in the little bard

The streets were desert, not a soul could be seen, and soon she was worried, worried about the battle, worried about Xena, and her stubborn son. _Gods where are you_

She quickly wondered if it was indeed Solan that hit her, and then left to do something stupid, but she dismissed it, deciding that it was absurd, _he'd never do such thing_

 _Then where are you, why did you leave, and where are you Xena? Gods I hope you are ok, if something has happened to you, I wouldn't know what to do, I'm lost without you, you once told me that I gave your life a purpose yet you are mine, please be safe, don't do anything…_

She stopped when she saw a single centaur, making his way back to the village from the battle, sword still in his hands, immediately the anxiety Gabrielle had repressed in the last few minutes tightened its grip on the bard's heart. For that one single Centaur, the way he walked, made Gabrielle realize that indeed something was wrong, and that something was scaring her to no ends, she approached the lone figure as fast as her feet could carry her and when she was just a few steps from him she could see the look of despair on his eyes.

"Kaleipus" asked softly the strawberry blond girl, "what happened"

When he turned his attention to the bard she could see the aftermath of the battle on him, enhanced by the last rays of the sun. Spots of blood had found their way all over his legs and human torso, and there was the trace of a single tear who had earlier crept down his face

"Solan is dead, and now Xena is marching against Zaros"

It was too much for the little bard to take at once and she almost fell, for her legs became weak suddenly and she brought a hand to her aching heart

"how..." she tried to rationalize

"he was found dead on the battlefield, I'm sorry" he tried to walk away from Gabrielle but soon he was stopped

"wait" she spoke again, placing herself on the centaur's path "why didn't you try to stop Xena" Inquired the blond girl and the centaur found himself looking at deep green eyes, who were hesitantly waiting for him to answer

"it was a lost cause kid" he cut short, after a moment

"I don't believe you"

"believe what you will, if you'll excuse me" he tried again to walk past the bard but found the little girl more motivated than ever

"listen girl, I don't like what Xena's doing but I don't think it's wise to stop her either, he had everyone convinced of her cause and I would have made a small difference, when you lose a loved one it's understandable to seek revenge against the ones that took him away"

"and many of my brothers were buried today because of them"

"and so what? You allow more people to die, just for revenge?" exclaimed the now enraged bard

"you agree with her, don't you? …That is why you didn't stop her…" finally realization dawning on the bard, a surprised look taking place on her features

"with every battle, with every bloodshed, we take a step away from each other, and we only learn to hate, we grow up our sons to hate each other and so it will go on, causing only pain and suffering on both sides, all for a selfish desire of revenge! And so our sons will fight and die in a war caused by their fathers, probably not even knowing why, is this what we truly want? Is this what we want for our future?"

Sadness and regrets took their place in the centaur's eyes

"it's too late now, she will have reached the village by now, I'm sorry" he finally said, making his way toward his house, soon leaving Gabrielle alone in the empty streets

* * *

"kill them all!" screamed the Warrior Princess in the heat of battle, fire was spreading already trough the wooden houses, the raid was a success, they successfully eliminated the resistance posed by the few guards patrolling the village, and were now spreading fire and terror across the town. Xena watched with satisfaction as the main hall collapsed to the ground eaten by the flames, a grin finding his way on Xena's lips

Her grin soon left her when she spotted a couple of armed men making their way towards her, she redirected her horse to the oncoming threat spurring her horse to a fast trot, she then stopped Argo and used the momentum she gained to jump off the saddle and onto the ground, effectively stunning the two men. She used her advantage to quickly disarm the first man while the other collected himself. when he saw how quickly his companion was neutralized he started to slowly back away from the warrior in front of him until a few more allies reached him, so he regained his courage and made his way on his enemy, yet from the hands of the woman a weapon that wasn't like any other he had seen was quickly thrown against him. He barely had the time to duck to avoid the sharp object which, unfortunately to him, managed to kill and wound many of the other men. Before he could realize what was happening a blade find his way across his face sending him to the ground causing his vision to turn white momentarily until sight return to him just when the same blade was about to strike him down, he quickly raised his sword, parring the forceful blow that had shaken his whole arm. For some kind of miracle he still managed to hold is sword and with the force of desperation he successfully kicked the warrior's leg, distracting her and quickly getting up from the ground.

He took a moment to look at the Warrior Princess face and what he saw scared him. She was smiling, as if she was toying with him, he was nothing but entertainment to her. Enraged, and short of options he tried to charge onto the force of nature standing before him, realization slowly taking over him.

This probably would be the last night he'd spend on this earth.

* * *

The flames seizing the village could be seen from this distance, by the time she'd get there nothing but ashes would witness the presence of a once living village, the night sky was tinted orange above Zaros for the flames alone were great enough to deceive the darkness of night.

 _By the Gods. This can't be happening, Xena, what have you done_

Her heart aching, her hands shaking, her stomach that was revolting against the excessive stress she was in almost caused her to throw up, yet she still found the strength to move forward, every step sending her a fit of pain across the body, she felt nauseous, to her it was a nightmare, with shaky legs she kept walking towards the inferno disclosing a few hundred paces in front of her

When she reached the town, only the crackling sound of the dying fire could be heard, and a deafening silence in the stillness of night, no screams or shouts, just the flames devouring what was left to burn. But it was enough for Gabrielle to see the real size of the tragedy that occurred there just before her arrival, and it scared her. She walked through the remaining houses without finding a single soul, no one was left alive, a tear slowly escaped her eyes, thinking about the evil behind this madness.

"how kind of you to show up" a familiar voice escaped from the flames coldly revealing itself

"you like what you see? Although you are a bit late for the party"

Gabrielle froze, slowly she turned to see a blur behind the dying flames, until it took a step forward and showed herself, there in the smoke of the fire, she could see the armor of the Warrior Princess, reflecting the light of the flames around her

"that's what happen to the ones who betray me, the ones who try to hurt me"

"Xena..."

The face of the warrior finally came into view, an evil grin on her face, she took another step forward and was now a few paces from the bard

"Xena, this is madness, please listen to me" begged the blond girl, shortening the distance between the two of them

"and what do you have to say?" she asked in a mocking tone

"I care for nothing you have to say"

"or perhaps you will tell me why my son is dead? You were supposed to protect him, I trusted you, yet because of you he is dead"

"then take it on me, you just don't become a murder and kill innocent people!" yelled the blond girl, mustering all the strength she had in her body to take one more step forward

"I might as well do that" she coldly replied, taking a more intimidating pose

"Xena please don't do this, I know you, snap out of it!"

"don't do what, Gabrielle, you think those people didn't deserve it? They are all murderers Gabrielle, the world is shaped by them, by warriors, and the weak are the ones who die by their hands, it's a selfish world Gabrielle and I'm done playing it by your rules, I'm done suffering"

"and what about the suffering you will cause? You should protect them from evil not become part of it"

"Xena you must stop this now" whispered the bard, tears streaming down her face

"and what if I don't want to? What If I decide to take destiny in my hands, Gabrielle, think about it. Every day a village like this is raised by warlords or criminals, what if I can stop it once and for all"

"you are not being serious"

"why not? We could bring peace across Greece"

"but at what cost?"

"it's nothing compared to the benefits!" exclaimed in rage the warrior

"and who are you to decide that?"

"always so good with words, are you? For the first time, I can see the path that I have to follow in my life and I do not intend to let it slip past me"

"Xena you must stop this madness right now"

"what if I don't, will you fight me?" she said mocking the small girl

"I will do what I must"

"careful Gabrielle, you are walking on some thin ice there"

"I don't care Xena, I only care for what you did here, for what you have become and If I have to fight you to stop you then I will, no matter the cost"

no matter the cost… she repeated her words in a whisper

"don't do this"

"To refuse love and compassion, is to refuse what makes us human, and that is no way to live"

Don't give in to that hate…"

"don't you understand? I can bring an end to all this suffering, Gabrielle"

Gabrielle slowly raised her staff in a defensive position, holding her ground to the wicked warrior before her

Tears threatened to leave Xena's eyes yet she soon replaced that weak emotion with one of anger and in one slow yet fluid move she unsheathed her sword, the sound of metal scraping against the leather sending chills to Gabrielle's skin

"It will end here, one way or another" whispered the bard, taking slow deep breaths, preparing for the oncoming battle

Gabrielle was no foul, she knew what Xena was capable of with a sword, she knew her chance, and she knew that from the moment the Warrior Princess unsheathed the sword, her destiny was signed. There was no way of winning in combat against her, she had seen plenty of warriors, way more skilled than her failing at that.

Before she could think of anything else the warrior charged, yelling her war cry, dashing against the bard, she quickly raised her staff, parring the first devastating blow that resounded across her whole arm, immediately Xena started to assess lighter yet faster blows on the sides that Gabrielle barely managed to deflect. She could hear the wood starting to crack under the pressure of the attacks but she stood her ground nonetheless.

Suddenly Xena disappeared from her sight after her typical somersault, landing behind Gabrielle's back, and before the bard could react, in one swift motion, kicked her back sending her to the ground. Quickly Gabrielle turned to face the Warrior Princess from the ground, she raised her staff just in time to parry a blow aimed to her head, she was going for the kill, and she knew that.

For a moment, the sword remained crossed with the staff, the tip of the blade started to inch closer to Gabrielle's neck after Xena put more pressure on the weapon, foretasting the oncoming victory, the staff being the only thing that was between Xena and her pray.

The wood creaked some more yet Gabrielle managed to free herself from the deadlock by kicking the warrior's side, successfully releasing the pressure on her and used the few seconds she had bought to get up, her quick thinking allowing her to stay alive for a few minutes more.

A grin escaped the warrior's mouth, and soon she was back on her target she charged once again, this time with a more powerful shot, raising her sword high she plumbed down on the bard, shaking the whole length of the staff, almost braking it clean. Quickly she went for the now unprotected side, assessing a couple of kicks that left the bard breathless, causing her to lower her defense for a couple of heartbeats, plenty of time for the experienced warrior to deal enough damage, and so she did, slicing her sword across the exposed shoulder and in the same swift motion cutting the bard's upper leg.

Immediately the small girl took a few steps backwards, a hand reaching for her injured shoulder while shifting her weight on the uninjured leg, in this conditions she wouldn't last much longer

Xena charged, for the third and last time, she put all the strength she could muster in her next blow, like a hurricane she was on her, striking her down, she tried to parry the forceful blow, raising the staff high with both hands to meet the attack, yet she only managed to deflect it for her shoulder gave up on her and soon she had to lower her hands. Ignoring the pain spreading across her body, from the tensed shoulders she faced the next hit, which was parallel to the ground, she placed the staff between her and the blade, only this time the staff split into two, leaving her defenseless, both ends resting separately in her hands, it was over, she knew that. Xena saw it as well for her next move was meant to cut the bard's life.

She pierced through her stomach and in a heartbeat, it was all over, she coldly removed the bloodied sword from her body, not a single emotion showing on her face

Gabrielle fall on her knees, hands reaching for the mortal wound on her belly, trying to stop the flow of blood already dampening the ground under her, life slowly moving away from her grasp.

She looked at Xena and for the last time green eyes met blue and she prayed for one day the Warlord before her could understand all the suffering she had caused and let go of the hate gripping her heart

"come on let's get this over" she whispered faintly, tears escaping her eyes, she then prayed for a quick death that would end everything. She felt the tip of the sword just above her chest, at the same height of her heart. She closed her eyes, waiting, yet the final blow never came, when she opened them she found herself starring at nothing but an empty village, few flames still burning, but of the Warrior Princess there was no trace. She couldn't deliver the final blow _how ironic, she's just leaving me here to die because she couldn't kill me_

She crawled for a few paces until she could lean into the small well in the middle of the square, she then ripped a piece of her dress in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding, but soon her remaining strength left her as well and the last thing she felt was her face meeting the dirty ground around the well.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: as stated in the previous chapter there will be a small delay for the next chapters due to my university exams, but don't worry, by the 2** **nd** **of February I'll be done and I'll be able to give this story my full attention**

 **AN: The two fellas who appears in this chapter are not mine, I do not own them, in fact they are created by the immensely talented Simon Scarrow. I just took them and brought them into this story. I'm a fan of ancient Rome and I love the Roman Empire which means is unlikely for me to write the romans down as the "bad guys" as often seen in the Xena series**

 **AN: when I use the word "book" in this story I do not mean the concept that we all have of a book, I'm either talking about scrolls or, more precisely, "volumen"**

 **Enjoy**

 _Love. Where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us? No war can put it out, conquer it. I was a prisoner. You set me free. – Thin Red Line_

Chapter 6

"admit it we are lost"

"we aren't lost, I know exactly where we are"

"and where would that be"

"well uhm it gotta be somewhere around...I mean…we are supposed to be…" the short man said confidently, looking at the map in his hands, trying to find an improbable answer by tilting the map at different angles

"just say it"

"ah forget it! I'm sure we are not that far off"

"we could always ask for-"

"don't you dare, we are not going to rely on some Greek peasants to get information"

"whatever" shook it off the taller yet younger guy, with a half grin on his face and tried a different tactic

"you know we could always stop at that tavern, after all some good wine and food could be of help" he said, pointing at the building a few paces away from them, on the road

"good wine, uh! Here? Perhaps you are expecting too much. But I agree, we can give it a try" rebuked the men, winking at him, cheered by the thought of getting something to drink and eat

When the couple of new customers entered her tavern, Cyrene was busy giving some instructions to the new girl working there, their presence immediately caught her attention, the two men by the look of their armors were probably roman soldiers, yet the tall guy looked anything but a soldier.

He was tall, a head clean taller than his friend, but very young and didn't look particularly buff, she couldn't see any scars on his body that were typical of more seasoned warriors. He had curly brown hair and must have been around his twenties, he wore the typical roman armor, and while he looked a bit out of place in it, it wasn't the case for the other man. Now, she thought, his friend was the picture of the perfect soldier, he was shorter yet sturdier, strong like a bull and with muscled legs and very short hair. A scar could be seen above his left eye. She quickly decided that the man must have been fifteen years older than his companion, more or less.

She made her way towards them when they took a table, curious to know what brought them here of all places. At least, she thought with some relief, they didn't seem to be searching for trouble.

She reached their table and took their orders, when she was back with the food and wine she tried to start a conversation, standing next to the young one, who seemed more handy

"here it is" she said, placing the viands on their table, along with the pitcher of wine

"thank you ma'am" offered the guy and Immediately Cyrene jumped at that to start a conversation

"oh please you can call me Cyrene" she politely answered "and you are…?"

"Centurion Quintus Licinius Cato and he's Lucius Cornelius Macro" he formally said

unfortunately for the host she wasn't used to this many names and a frown of confusion appeared on her face, while she did her best to remember all the names she was given. Luckily he must have notice her sudden perplexity for he made things easier for her "you can call us Cato and Macro if you wish" he explained. So, the young man was Cato, while his strong companion was Macro she considered.

"I see, Cato, and what brings you here, may I ask?" she smiled

"I don't see how this is of your concern ma'am" cut short the older man, receiving a glare from Cato

"he means that we are not allowed to speak of our duty outside the camp" he added after his companion spoke, trying to be nice

"I understand that don't worry. Are you going to stay here for long?" she tried again, slightly changing her approach. The young man quickly took her chance to answer at that before his grumpy companion could make it more awkward

"we are just passing by, we don't mean any trouble" Cato explained receiving a snort from his friend which he answered with a roll of his eyes.

When they left the tavern, they decided to head north after a short discussion with the inn keeper despite Macro's stubbornness, but luckily after a couple of glass of wines and some good food he managed to convince the hard-headed centurion walking next to him to ask for information and so they were back on track.

They kept marching until they reached the borders of the forest, between the Macedonian kingdom and the lands of the Thracians

"hey you know what I've read in a book, about this forest?" started an excited Cato while starting to unpack his things for the night to come

"oh Gods here we go again…"

"come on don't do that"

"you know I don't like wasting my time on things like books"

"yeah yeah just listen, will you?"

"if I have to..."

"it says that in the depth of the forest, well hidden, is a tribe of Centaurs"

"bullshit, don't tell me you believe at this crap…I thought you were the smart one here" remarked the short man laughing at his young companion

"I never said I believed in it"

"whatever, will you help me set up camp or you just gonna stand there watching for your centaur friends?"

"oh ah-ha!" he sarcastically laughed, but soon returned on hearth from his open-eyed dream and by the time the light was gone in the sky they finished their camp and had eaten their portion of dried meat and wine that was their dinner.

"all I'm saying it's not the waste of time you think it is" tried again the young guy, hovering his hand above the fire, to fight the chill of night

"tell me how's a book going to help you when you have an enemy standing in front of you, you gonna throw it at him?"

"it can help learning the culture of a population, their traditions – "

"who cares about their traditions if they are not a threat to Rome" interrupted his companion trying to force his logic on his philosophic friend

"this is very open minded from you" agreed Cato, almost loosing hope on confronting his friend about this, he was about to voice his opinion once again when something caught his attention. About a couple of miles away from their campsite it could be seen rising from the earth an unnatural column of light and smoke

"what is that" he asked to his friend pointing in its direction

"what, what did you…oh crap, is that a fire?"

"I thought so! It's not too far from the village we've passed either"

"that's not near the village… that's the village"

"what did you think happened"

"I don't know, I'm just glad we weren't there"

"well we gotta go there see what's going on!" exclaimed the enraged guy trying to pick up his heavy companion

"are you insane? I'm not going there, we already have enough trouble on our own there's no need to go and look for more" tried to reason the older guy, suddenly worried about his companion's hot head _, oh gods here we go again…_

"Macro those people were kind to us when we've got there, they even offered you some wine, come on we've got to see what's going on"

"I'm not going anywhere, besides, by the time we'll get there it will be just a bunch of ashes I'm afraid"

"well I'm going there" he finally decided, picking up his sword and heading towards the distant inferno.

 _What did I do to deserve that guy, it's already a miracle we are still alive after all the crap we've been through and now he's looking for more trouble, with this rate I'll be surprised if we make it to the end of the year_

"hold on I'm coming"

 _Fortuna please stay with us a bit more,_ he silently sent a prayer to the Goddess of luck

* * *

They were just a few hundred paces away from the smoking village when they heard it, hooves hitting the soft grass, and a couple of man walking close to the pair, they could see the reflection of the dying fire on their metal amour. Immediately the centurion halted his friend, raising a finger to point at the close men. They crouched into the ground, using the cover of night to take a better look. behind them they could get a glimpse of a larger crowd moving away from town, several horseman and soldiers moving away from the sacked village, yelling and feasting for their victory, their voices a blur from the distance

"it must be the raiding party" guessed the young man, in a whisper

"no shit there Cato, we should have never come in the first place, now let's go" he tried to move away but was stopped in his movement by the friend

"wait, look" he pointed at a couple of moving figures they failed to see earlier, only ten paces away from them. Immediately his blood froze, quickly he tried to lower himself into the ground, his actions copied by the friend. They tried to stay still as the figures had now halved their distance. He could hear them talk normally, which relieved him yet the path they were taking was bringing them dangerously close to the couple. He slowly and fluently lowered his hand to the short sword resting on his side, ready to use it if things got ugly, but his movement was suddenly frozen when he could distinctly see the outline of one of the rider before them, it was not a horse as he had thought earlier, in fact he couldn't believe at what he was looking, he blamed the lightning of the night or the wine he had earlier for what was delineating in front of him was no creature he had ever seen, he couldn't believe the kid was right.

Luckily for them the few figures close to them ignored the romans and headed back to the raiding party.

"did you see that?" dared to ask Macro when he considered it safe to speak

"who's the fool now" teased the young man

"if you are done trying to get us kill I'm going as far away from here as possible"

he tried to move away but once again he was stopped by Cato

"I'm going in there, I want to find out what's going on here"

"are you…? Well what you _think_ is going on here"

"I mean besides _that_ " he said referring to the raid "I want to know what's going on here, I guess Rome should know what is going on in this forest don't you think?" he explained trying to convince his friend to follow him on his little quest. After a bit the short man nodded, not totally convinced, but they headed down to the burnt town nonetheless

When they reached the first houses not a soul could be seen, they walked around for a bit until they reached the remaining of what once was the village square, there, laying on the ground, was an unconscious blonde girl, blood coming out from the partially covered wound on her stomach staining her clothes

Soon they made their way to the girl, examining her wound

"leave her, there's nothing we can do, let's get out come on"

"she's still alive we can help her" exclaimed Cato

"look boy, she's lost too much blood I don't think she'll pass the night" said an annoyed Macro

"we can save her, we just need to cauterize the wound" he resorted faithfully

"and then what? I'm telling you only the Gods can save this girl, she's way beyond saving"

"will you help me or not!?" yelled the young man, now mad at his companion

"all right I got it, but what will we do then, it's not like we can take her with us" as soon as those words left his mouth he saw the thoughtful expression on his friend's eyes

"don't even think about it" he tried to cut it before he could say anything but he knew he was talking to a wall

"for the Gods boy! We are roman soldiers on a mission, not some kind of traveling healers!"

But nothing he said was succeeding at convincing the young soldier to let the girl go, and he knew it, and he finally gave up

"she's only gonna cause trouble, just know that" and added "this of course if she doesn't die by the next day, which is extremely likely"

* * *

The next day the girl was still alive to Macro's disappointment. They had camped near the village, the older centurion went to pick up their belonging on their previous campsite and when he got back to Cato he had to give his bedroll to the girl to keep her warm, adding the insult to the injury

"tell me again why we didn't use your gods be damned bedroll" was the first thing he said when he woke up, chilled to the bone, trying to find the only comfort in the heat of the cloak for the night

"we've been over this, don't start it again"

"whatever, you owe me" he said, and looked at the sleeping girl "what are we gonna do with her?" he finally asked, trying to see a future for this blonde girl who insisted on tormenting the centurion by refusing to die.

"I don't know, I think she's recovering, she actually might survive"

"yeah that's true" agreed the veteran "but it still doesn't answer my question"

* * *

"Narcissus will want our heads when he'll hear about this" blurted out Macro. They've been delaying their current mission for the following two days, instead they decided to take care of this gods be damned girl, Thought the older centurion, who seemed to have some sort of effects on Cato, he realized

"if he finds out, he doesn't know anything, calm down"

"he literally is the head of the secret service you'd think he notice things like his people going missing and helping random girls instead of doing what we are told to do, and let me add this, we are not even agents! We are gods be damned soldier doing spy work, and it's all because of your great ideas that we've ended up here!" he finally broke down letting everything go

"I want to go back to my legion, I'm a soldier, not… whatever I'm being right now!" he exclaimed once again. He was about to say something more when some movements caught her attention and he found himself look at a pair of green eyes and immediately all the words he had in his minds just left him.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** fun fact, both Amphipolis and Potidaea are real cities and they actually still exist to this very day, they are located east and south of Thessaloniki, if you are interested, Potidaea is easy to locate, if you go on maps, south of Thessaloniki you will find three fingers of land extending in the Aegean Sea, Potidaea is located at the beginning of the first finger on the left where the land is thinner. Amphipolis is trickier, it's north west of the three fingers I've mentioned earlier, and on the apex of the Orfani's gulf (that's what I believe is called) while Abdera is some miles east of Amphipolis, near the hodiern Kavala (which is easy to find) and you can stop looking at the town of Zaros because I invented it although it's supposed to be very close to Abdera. Also, have the time to locate Larissa because I have a feeling we will go there sooner or later

 **AN:** in Xena they never faced the problem of language so basically everyone from here to Japan apparently speak a perfect Greek, I'm Italian and I'm using it to my advantage writing in Italian when the romans talk to each other in their native language. This story is from Gabrielle's pov, so when the romans talk to each other in "Latin" it's understandable for Gabrielle to be a bit confused; don't worry it's just a few lines!

Chapter 7

Gabrielle was confused at first, she briefly wondered if she was indeed death yet the very heartily pain she felt was pointing out that she was still alive somehow, either that or she was in Tartarus. Her thoughts were interrupted by a foreign voice just a few paces away from here, she dared to open her eye just a little to observe her surroundings and she found herself looking at two man engaged in a conversation; she assumed they must have been romans just by the way they were dressed. _Great._ As soon as the thought of running away crossed her mind the short guy turned his head towards her, freezing in his motion, realizing that the blond girl was awake. He quickly peeked at his younger friend and then approached the girl

"ciao ragazza, come ti senti?" he suddenly asked, receiving a glare from the bard, she was about to ask him what he said when his companion chimed in, at first speaking to his friend

"Macrone amico mio potresti avere più successo se gli parli in greco mi sa" and then turned to the girl

"I'm Cato and he's Macro" he explained, pointing towards himself and his bulky friend, "what my friend was trying to ask was how you feel"

Immediately the girl relaxed, and tried to see how bad was her injury but the reason behind it come crushing down on her, and she had to take a deep breath to fight back the first tears trying to get through. She never felt this bad in all her life, it felt like nothing else had any meaning to her, she wished for death to take her, for the pain growing in her guts was all too gripping and the thoughts of Xena doing this to her was heartbreaking.

She once again met the brown eyes in front of her but realized she couldn't hold the look any longer, she felt ashamed for some reason, like this all situation was none but her fault. She steadied her thoughts and tried her best to look cool in front of those men, but even to her it felt fake

"hey girl It's ok, was your family in that village? What's your name?" tried again the roman, hoping for the girl to come out of her state. The tall guy had been observing the exchange for a while with a curious look on his eyes until he decided to take actions and moved towards the poor girl, covering her with his red cloak, trying to shelter her and after a few encouraging words and a glance at his companion they stepped back leaving some room to the girl while they talked a few paces away.

"te cosa ne pensi?" he asked for his friend's opinion and was about to hear his answer when they were interrupted by the girl's voice

"Gabrielle" she quietly stated, "my name is Gabrielle"

She looked at the men before her and decided they seemed decent people and hopefully had no ill intentions, she told them her name and asked for some food, receiving a smile for an answer, after all she didn't lose her appetite… she learnt she'd been out for a couple of days after the raid, yet Gabrielle hadn't had the heart to tell them what exactly happened there, maybe because it was still so unsettling to her in the first place, every time she had a chance to think of that moment she had the kind of feeling you have when you miss a step on a staircase yet that very same feeling was now a constant presence to her and it was slowly destroying her, she could talk and maybe laugh a bit to the couple of men with her yet as soon her memory got back to her she felt nauseous and sick in a matter of seconds. It was going to be like a shadow following her in the days to come, a presence that time couldn't weaken.

She felt much better after eating some of the food that was gently offered to her, she realized, perhaps, that there was hope for her and maybe not all was lost but as soon as she let her mind dream a bit, Xena's face was back, and it hurt her, it felt like someone kicked her in the stomach, and now realized she was merely lying to herself; it wasn't going to get better and she knew it, for how it could? After all she's been through how could things get better? What chances did she have to move on after all the bad things that have happened? She let this roller-coaster of emotion take over her until she heard her name spoken, she looked up and found two pairs of worried eyes staring at her

"you ok there? We've been calling you for a few times"

"sorry, I'm just, I don't feel too good now" she tried to explain

"well sure you were hungry!" half joked the shorter guy "you pretty much finished our rations of food" he continued, not noticing the glare his companion was giving him

"uh, sorry about that" she blushed, and then something happened, she tried an half smile but then something snapped on the little girl and she started crying, she wasn't able to cope with all the emotions and events thrown at her and broke down, but of all the emotions and feelings she experience earlier wasn't sadness the reason she was crying, instead she was crying for the hope she had just found and it was so surprising to her, to find it at her darkest hour that she didn't know how to deal with it, because In that single moment, with that small joke she realized she was right earlier, the world wasn't over and she could see it now. Or at least she hoped

Obviously the other two man didn't see her breakdown the way she saw it and were utterly worried, Cato was deciding whatever to go and punch Macro or try to comfort the girl, but the decision was made for him when Gabrielle re-emerged from her breakdown with a grin on her face

"I was starving you know…"

That left Cato mouth hanging, until his dumb expression turned into a smile who soon become a laugh; and so, they laughed and Gabrielle laughed and that laugh was an antidote for the poison poisoning her soul, and she felt good for the first time in that day and in that tiny moment she found herself able to dream for her future, hope on her side once again.

After a couple of beats the roman managed to compose himself and watched the girl before him, there was something truly curious about her, he thought, clearly she was involved in the raid yet he wondered how did she managed to survive, sure there was more than what meet the eyes, and he was eager to find out more. What surprised him was his friend's behavior, as soon as Macro looked at the girl, Gabrielle was her name, he seemed like another person, perhaps the strong warrior had a crush on the little girl, he grinned at that, making a note to make fun of his companion later.

"are you full?" he asked suddenly, still trying to understand how such little creature could eat this much, but of course she was out for a few days, she must have been starving

"oh yes! Actually, yes" she answered with a smile

"thank goodness for that, we were running short of supply there!" half joked the roman, receiving a blush in response, then his companion chimed in the conversation

"hey girl I'm glad you got better" then turned serious for a moment "wanna tell us what happened there?"

His question was met with silence until the girl found the strength to answer it, after a little hesitation

"well it is a long story, where should I start?" she asked herself but Cato answered for her with an encouraging smile "try with the start"

"all right, have you ever heard of the Warrior Princess?"

The two men exchange a quick surprised glance then focused back on the bard, who kept telling her story

* * *

They've been together for the next couple of days, establishing a strong friendship with each other's, yet after Macro's pressing they decided to split for the romans had a duty to fulfill that couldn't be postponed any longer, and so they shared the last piece of their road in silence, they agreed to accompany the girl to the amazons, or at least their borders, then they would head west to continue for their journey

"I'm afraid this is it girl" sadly stated Cato, pointing at the crossroads before them

"it's been nice having you around" added Macro with an awkward smile

"I wish you best of luck for your journey my friend" continued the taller roman

Now it was Gabrielle's turn to speech yet she was left speechless, quite unusual to her, she felt alive once again around those two man and the thought of leaving them was saddening her.

"thank you for all you've done, and to our next meeting" she finally decided to say and hugged the two man, then they departed and she proceeded towards the forest, after a couple of steps she stopped and looked back at the romans walking further down the road just before they got out of side, she encouraged herself after a bit of hesitation with a big intake of air and continued heading towards her fellows' amazons.

She thought of them and inevitably her mind went to Xena and the events of the last few days, suddenly a shadow of a doubt crept in Gabrielle's mind, the amazons fought alongside Xena, _what if they now recognized her as the leader and cast me aside_? _I can't go back to the amazon_ she thought, that was her only plan, she hadn't thought of anything else and the truth came crushing down on to her

 _I'm alone_

she briefly wondered if she should head back to the two romans, at least they accepted her, but discarded that thought, no, she was alone and she didn't know what to do.

For the first time, she felt empty, a small dot in a huge world, she was alone, and had nowhere to go, she could go back home but once again she couldn't be safe there with Xena around. Maybe she could stay with the big guy and his friend but she would feel like a weight, just hanging around them; she was running out of ideas and started to realize that she had no home anymore, to her it felt like being a vagabond, doomed to travel the world alone, perhaps that was her future, to become a citizen of the world, traveling around with no bounds of destinations.

She was frightened, she knew how to survive out there, but she always had a purpose, Xena was her purpose, now only silence accompanied her

She tried to cheer herself up, she was a bard after all, she was born to tell stories, maybe she's just been looking at this from the wrong point of view, maybe this could have been a new start for her, a new life. After all citizen of the world doesn't sound too bad, she thought smiling at the idea

She picked up her few belongings and decided to head south, to Athens and to her new life

She walked and walked for what seemed like days to her yet probably it was something like half a candelmark, yet with only silence as her companion every meter taken felt like a mile but she kept walking nonetheless, she didn't even know where Athens was but moving was the only thing that kept her alive and gave her a purpose and so she continued, realizing perhaps in one of her philosophical thoughts that it wasn't the destination what mattered but the journey to get there. It had to be that way, it was either that way or the loss of her mental health.

She convinced herself that the journey was what mattered for all she knew she could be as well heading north to end up in some gods forsaken place like the lands beyond the Danube

* * *

She didn't end up over the Danube, she didn't end up in Athens either unfortunately to her. She didn't go far at all for in the third day of her journey she managed without noticing to almost go back on her steps, and by the fifth day she pretty much went full circle and got back to her starting point near Abdera.

Finally, on the sixth day of her travel she was back on the right track with some help which she would never admit, it took her a whole week but now she was closing into the town of Larissa, she survived on the road by earning money as a travelling bard, she often exchanged her stories for a warm meal, where she couldn't have such luxury she had to rely on her stocks and some occasional hunting, which was proving to be quite hard to her despite Xena's teachings. She did manage to catch a few fish on her travels and with some luck she'd be in Athens by the end of the month.

It was still hot in the days yet the nights were progressively turning colder, the hot summer was finally leaving his place to the autumn's weather, days were turning shorts, it was still far from the cold of winter, and even then, it wouldn't be a major problem, for Greece was gifted with warm temperatures even in the winter months.

On the first day of the third week of her travels she reached the village of Soufli, or what was left of it, once a prosperous town just a couple of miles north of Larissa, now it was just a pile of burned huts and houses.

She made her way to the town square, where she found dozens of people trying to save the few things they possessed from the ruins that used to be their houses. Quickly the bard approached a couple of elders holding each other, not even trying to save anything

"what happened here?" was her question, spoken softly, to the old couple

"we were cursed by the Gods! That's what happened young lady! We've lost everything" the woman said, holding back her tears

"yeah, but who did this?" she insisted

"an army came through here a few days ago" the man started telling "hundreds of men, they were heading to Larissa, at first they just asked for food, but look around you, we can barely sustain ourselves, but an army?" he said, sarcastically laughing at that "no, we had no choice, we tried to tell her but- "

"her?" she suddenly asked the bard, interrupting him

"yes, her, the woman who was leading the host, anyway she asked for food and supplies but as I said we couldn't possibly…" the old man kept telling his story, without noticing that the Bard's attention was elsewhere, none of his words reaching the bard's ear. She had to know more of this, deep down she knew that it was Xena the reason for all of this but she needed to hear it

"at first they started with-"

"this woman you speak of" she asked once again, interrupting the man "was she tall, wearing black leathers and armor, and with blue eyes?"

"ah, yes, that is pretty accurate, do you know her?" he asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow

"well let's say I know of her" she half lied, "I'm a bard, I tell stories" she added trying to justify herself

"guess you could add this one to your stories"

"I'm really sorry for what happened here, is there anything I could do?" she asked, feeling sorry for the old couple there and their village

"I'm afraid you're too late, there isn't much you can do now"

"I have some coins, if it can help" she said trying to offer them some of her money, but was gently refused by the old man who raised a hand to stop the bard

"I thank you, but there is nothing you can do, you should leave the area, that warlord is still around with his army it's not safe around here anymore"

"and where will you go?" the bard asked to the old couple

"we lived here for the last 40 years, that's our home, for us there is no other place to go, we will stay here and try to pass the winter" answered the old lady, taking her husband's hand "you are young and full of energy, take my advice, get as far from here as you can, and stay out of trouble"

 _I can't do that_

 _I need to stop this madness, I need to stop Xena before it's too late, but what can I do, I'm no warrior, surely I am no match to Xena, I'm a Gods be damned bard! How can I stop someone like her?_ The bard thought enraged

"are you ok?" the question brought the bard back to the village and she decided that she needed to leave this place as soon as possible, she had to take actions

"yes, yes I'm fine, sorry, I need to go now, I wish you best of luck"

"farewell young lady" the man said raising a hand in a salute

As soon as she was out of the village and out of sight the bard let out a scream she didn't know she was holding, she screamed and started to kick a nearby tree yet after a couple of blows her wound screamed in protest, hitting her suddenly and momentarily leaving her out of breath. She had to lay on the grass to regain focus and started to breath normally once again, after a few moments of intense pain.

She knew what to do, but didn't know how, after checking her wound, she was back on track heading south, to Larissa and to Xena.

"how do you do that?" suddenly a voice asked, out of nowhere. She turned, only to be faced by the God of War, who then continued in a surprised tone "how do you manage to stay alive every time?" he asked, taking a menacing step toward the bard, that instinctively tried to reach for her staff, forgetting that it was broken and lost, with all things that happened she completely forgot about it and she felt defenseless, not that with her staff it could be any different.

"what do you want Ares? Haven't you done enough damage?" she spitted out vengefully

"you call it damage I call it peace"

"it didn't look very peaceful the village I've just passed" she retorted, anger rising inside her

"well sometimes you have to make some sacrifices for a greater good"

"and I'm sure you were very quick to allow it" sarcastically laughed the bard who then continued "it still doesn't say why are you here"

"right to the point, I like it. It's easy my little friend, you stay away from the Warrior Princess and you get to live, try to contact her and I'll personally end your life, simple enough?"

"if you are so worried why don't you just kill me now"

"watch it, little one, I may just do that" he said unsheathing his sword "but it looks like you have friends up there who wouldn't agree with this" he said, a shadow of anger crossing his eyes for a heartbeat, he took one more step forward, standing toe to toe with the bard and to emphasize his next few words raised his sword under the bard's chin

"do not test my patience, if you get too close to Xena there will be no Goddess able to save you, is that clear?" he said, and just like that he disappeared, not before leaving a small trickle of blood on the bard's neck from the blade

The bard fell to the ground, for her legs suddenly become weak after the encounter without her even realizing it.

She thought of the God's words and recomposed herself; Inadvertently, Ares gave her hope once again and after a few beats she was ready and more determined than ever to proceed on her quest.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN:** thank you guys for reading this story, thank you so much for your reviews, they are gold to me and I'd definitely love to see more of them, (other guys as well!) and who knows, any tip or request for this story is welcome, although I have the next few chapters planned out (and this one was as well)

Now about the updates, I'm trying to give you weekly updates and I'll do my very best to keep them regular. I was thinking about releasing new chapters every Thursday or Friday but I'm open to suggestions on this one. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, if you spot any mistake or something that seems off to you just let me know in the review so I can fix it! Again, thank you guys and enjoy

Chapter 8

She walked back and forward in her tent, thinking about her next moves. She was ready to strike against the Town of Larissa; everything was in place yet something was bothering her but couldn't see what it was. This was her first step on her quest to unify Greece and so many things could go wrong that it was unnerving to her

it was too late to go back now, she'd gone too far, deep down she knew that from the moment she killed Gabrielle, there was no turning point

no, she had chosen her path, she created it

 _oh Gabrielle I'm so sorry it has come to this; I'd never dream of such days but here we are and It's too late for me. I'm beyond saving now, I've always believed that we can choose our destiny, shape it into our own, yet now I'm not so sure, maybe no matter what we do we can't change our fate, as in a book already written, we cannot change the ending, for it's already there, written._

 _I realize nothing is sure for me, I don't know if what I'm doing is right or wrong, I'm lost without you and I see it now. I believed that a unified Greece would be stronger and safer, a better place for all, but I only see pain and suffering no matter what I do._

"we are ready to move on your order, commander" reported her new second in command, slightly bowing his head, after entering her quarters

She looked at him for a bit, he was an experienced soldier, who served in the Athenian army and then become a mercenary, like a good part of her new army. The rest was mainly made by warlords who pledged their alliance to Xena and common folks who joined hoping to share a part of any future loot. She had lost many of the Centaurs and Amazon a few days after the raid on Zaros, letting them go back to their homes if they pledged their allegiance to her and answer in situations of need

"make ready, I'll be out in a second" she cut short, her eyes following the man until he had left the tent.

When he was gone, she focused back on the map under her, laid on the table; her eyes scanned it once again, halting just for a few moments on Larissa and then went north, to the Centaur's lands and the memory of her son and Gabrielle hit her once again

 _I never felt this lost, I know you didn't see it the way I do but in the end we were both looking for the same thing, right? We both wanted peace in our land, I need to know that I have all the right reasons to do what I'm doing but I cannot shake away the doubts that have been shadowing me for days now_

 _I love you Gabrielle, I hope to see you again one day, although now I'm not so sure I ever will_

She followed the man outside shortly after, and was pleased to discover some sort of decent organization among her ranks. She was no foul, she knew how to lead a host, yet this was more of a confused muster rather than a proper army, with several independent parties, kept together by the respect and fear Xena alone was capable of instilling

She spotted a couple of man having a discussion recognizing Androcles, her second in command, while she had to double check on the other man because such was the surprise to see him here, she did not expect that but a grin formed on her lips and advanced towards them

When the taller man saw her coming, immediately went into a formal stance, and started to present the man

"Commander, this man claimed to be a warlord who wants to join us as well, his name is – "

"Draco" Xena finished the sentence for him

"hello Xena" said the newcomer, grinning back to the warrior woman "or should I say commander?"

"leave us" she quickly commanded to the other man, dismissing him.

She waited a few beats, thinking on something to say to her old "friend" when he beat her to it

"I see you made yourself quite comfortable, back on the old ways uh?" he half joked

"and you haven't changed at all" she punctually retorted, and continued "what are you doing here, don't tell me you want to join me" she asked sarcastically, raising her eyebrows

"why not? I know you Xena, I know what you can do, we were allied once, we can be like that again, together we can conquer Greece!" he exclaimed, excited, stepping closer to the woman

"and what makes you think I need you?"

"look around you Xena!" said the warlord, raising his hands, pointing at the camp

"I only see warlords, mercenaries and old warriors…this is not an army, as soon as you'll turn your head they will not hesitate to devour one another" he grinned and continued "how long do you think you can keep them together?"

Again, she raised an eyebrow, surprised by the warlord's quick thinking, but soon cover it with a sarcastic expression

"well then I'll keep my eyes open, I'm sure I can deal with that" she answered unamused

"oh sure, until you give them a purpose they'll follow you, but what then? When there's no more looting or conquering, what will you do"

"no Xena, listen to me, I know something that will keep them together, something so powerful even the mightiest of man will bow in fear to you"

"and why are you telling me this?"

"I'm not doing this for free" simply answered the warlord, the end of his lips curving into a slim smile

"uh, I see, and what do you want?" she asked

"I want you Xena, I want to be with you when Greece will be at our feet, that is my price"

"this thing of yours better be worth it" she glared the man, trying to read his expression, but didn't see any lie behind his next words

"trust me, when we'll get our hands on it we'll be unstoppable" he said "this if you'll accept my offer of course" he continued, raising his hand to make the deal.

Xena left him hanging for a beat until she decided she needed to learn more about this before striking such deal, although it definitively peaked her curiosity, and she couldn't lie to herself, the man was right, she needed something that would give her some sort of leverage over her men and, if this was as powerful as he said, maybe even nations

She looked at his hand, frozen in the air and carefully pondered her next words

"I want to know what is this thing you speak of, and if it's so powerful how come you aren't getting it yourself?"

"It's well protected, I tried to get it once and lost several of my best men, but with you we could do it, I'm sure of it"

he was interrupted by one of Xena's man

"commander, sorry to interrupt, we've spotted a cavalry party moving out of town towards our camp, we believe the governor is with them" he spoke fast, and left with a bow, leaving a concerned Xena to deal with this news

"we'll talk about this later" she quickly dismissed Draco and reached the outskirt of her camp, quickly approaching the sentries on guards

"what's going on here" she asked with her dark tone to the poor man standing guard, who took a few beats to find some words

"My lady, there" he simply said, pointing with his finger in front of him. It took her but a few seconds to spot the party on the field, twenty men or so she thought, they were still far, about a mile from her camp, yet she vaguely identified the color of their banners as the ones of the town council

"muster the man, tell them to make ready" she said quickly to the man in charge at the guard post; immediately he started shouting orders and before she knew it they were ready to face the incoming threat, not that she would dare to define it as such, she thought with a smile, she wondered if they had the guts to ask for peace, she didn't see any other purpose for this kind of expedition. When she could identify with certainty their banners her man were ready and prepared to fight if needed.

She was right earlier, they were a part of the town council, she could see clearly now their elegant clothes and armor of their escort

When they covered the last few paces remaining she took a few steps forward, detaching from the line of infantry, eager to welcome them, and causing a bit of concern among her troops

"Commander is it safe..." started Androcles, but stopped midsentence when she received a piercing glare from the Warrior Princess, prompting him to step back on to their ranks

She turned back, now facing the riders in front of her who presented themselves to the warrior

"my name is Nicomedes, governor of Larissa, and you must be the famous Warrior Princess" guessed the leader of the party, referring to Xena, before getting down from his horse to greet the warrior with a strong handshake

"we come in pace, under a banner of truce" he continued, raising his hand to point at the white banner among the others "we mean no harm, we just want to talk"

Xena openly laughed at that, offending the man in front of him who was about to retort but avoided responding at the provocation

"and what is it that you want to talk" she asked, glaring at the man in an arrogant stance, successfully making him uncomfortable

"my people have suffered enough, there is no need for more bloodshed, not after the Aetolian war" he said, trying to reach for the warrior's good side

"then it seems we have a problem" she coldly said, taking a step towards the man, enjoying the sight of his bodyguards exchanging nervous glances "I need that city and I know you don't have enough man power to stop me"

"so you either give me what I want, or I'll take it by force and trust me, it won't be nice" she added, glaring at him causing him to nervously look around, until he came to a decision

"perhaps is better if we continue this conversation in a more private place, shall we?" he suddenly asked, receiving the approval of the Warrior Princess who led the governor to her personal quarters

* * *

A few days later she moved her camp on the outskirt of Larissa, not willing to enter the city with her army yet, to avoid trouble with the town's folk. The former Governor agreed to give up his power to Xena, handing over the control of the city to the warrior. Immediately she had replaced any major office with men loyal to her that she knew had some experience in running a city.

this town was her first conquest and she had taken it without any major bloodshed, she thought, considering it an unexpected success, and let her mind wander a bit; she was seeing herself sitting on a throne commanding a united Greece without any internal war or warlords raiding the countryside, she could stop it all. It was a dream, she knew that, yet in her mind she could almost grasp it, she wondered if it was truly this far the future she had seen, but she quickly scolded herself, now more than ever wasn't the time to dream, this was just a minor success on a much larger quest, Athens would surely move against her and it could rally all the Peloponnesian cities, even she couldn't afford to fight such league and hope to win.

She was walking around the town hall, her steps echoed in the empty halls, richly decorated by several generations of governors; the previous owners had to leave this place in a hurry, fearing retaliations from the Warrior Princess and leaving behind, on the dirty floors, any kind of garbage they couldn't bring, leaving them to be the only witness of the previous life that these halls had once seen. And so Xena found herself walking alone in such beautiful place accompanied only by the sound of silence, and in this very moment, surrounded by such magnificence, she felt alone like never before.

She entered in one of the many rooms of the building and took a few steps inside until her foot bumped into something. She looked down and saw a solitary scroll carelessly thrown to the ground, forgotten. With a half-smile she picked it up, thinking of Gabrielle, and brought it close to her chest. After a few seconds she let it go, carefully laying it on a wooden table. Her fingers left the scrolls to trace the beautiful carvings decorating the border of the table, that were narrating a tale she didn't know

Again, her thoughts went to Gabrielle, she would probably have known what this story was about and for the first time she wished to see the bard once again, hoping beyond hope.

Her smile left her face when she felt a presence near her

"you are the best!" The War God gloated, appearing from thin air, proud of his creation

"is it so?" she coldly answered, not sharing his enthusiasm

"Xena!" he exclaimed, deciding to ignore her coldness "you conquered this city without bloodshed and with a bunch of mercenaries and warlords nonetheless"

"can't you see? You can do something, bring something new, you can achieve greatness, and are so close to do it, but you need to let the past go" he exclaimed

"no Ares, it's you who can't see" she said, with a vein of hate in her voice "with every passing day I feel like a piece of me is dying, there is no joy in the victory, it doesn't make me feel any better" she stopped for a moment but quickly continued "is this what you want?" she said, pointing at her surroundings, the empty halls and silent hallways, she tried to continue but was interrupted

"it doesn't have to be this way"

"it's the only way" she whispered angrily "if I'm going to follow this path this is what awaits me"

"you don't know this, you might be surprised" he said "if you let go the past, if you let the old Xena out you might as well enjoy this"

"think about it"

And after that he was gone, leaving Xena alone in the room after his brief appearance

She suddenly needed air and hurried outside, where she found her second in command visibly worn out, looking for her

"Commander" he said, short of breath, she assumed he run there, and understood the urgency in his tone, after he caught his breath he continued

"Commander, one of our warlord is attacking a tavern in town and we barely managed to contain the others"

Xena immediately went into action and saddled Argo, after making sure to know where the place was she left a few orders to carry out by her second in command and hurried Argo to the tavern

When she reached it a few moments later she heard a few muffled shouts coming from inside the building and without any proper strategy she broke the door down and stormed the place

The first men she saw were giving their backs to the door and she used it to her advantage, quickly getting rid of them with skillful strikes, she then focused on the man who seemed to be in charge, as he was the biggest of the bunch and the only one who seemed to have an air of authority

She went for him with incredible vengeance, tossing away a chair that was on her path and tried to strike the man down with her sword. Unfortunately, he had the time to see her, and after a moment of panic he managed to parry the powerful blow, deflecting it on a wooden table next to Xena

The Warrior Princess quickly changed strategy and started to hit the bulky man with few calculated kicks that he wasn't fast enough to parry, not helped by the fact that he wasn't exactly sober either, and after the umpteenth kick he had to give up the grasp on his sword, leaving him at the mercy of the warrior woman

"ok! Ok! I give up" he shouted, hoping to be spared, and surrendered to the warrior, along with the rest of the men in the room.

A few minutes later Androcles was back and with him were a few soldiers and Draco, like Xena asked.

The second in command reported to her after the tavern was secured and the mutineers brought back in the camp, waiting for their sentence.

To Xena this situation brought back the memory of Cirra and although on a much smaller scale made her wonder if she could control this many warlords and warriors reunited under her banner. She had carefully pondered Draco's words and admitted that there was truth in his words, maybe not now, but in a time where she will have to control a larger territory she couldn't hope to keep a strong grasp on all her subjects and situations like this were destined to be repeated unless she had some kind of leverage to keep them in their ranks

She spotted Draco waiting near the wall of the tavern, their eyes met for a bit, prompting him to grin, knowing that probably the Warrior Princess was going to take his offer. She walked towards the smiling warlords, taking her time, trying to look more intimidating, until she was almost in his personal space, using her heights as her advantage

"you seem troubled, Xena, is something not going the way you imagined?" he said boldly

"cut it short Draco, what is it that you have to offer?"

"ah, right to the point" he grinned

"have you ever heard of the Kronos Stone?" he asked "they say it's hidden in amazon lands"

Now it was Xena's turn to grin


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** again, thank you guys for following me into this adventure, I cannot describe how much I love this, and as usual, any review, suggestion or critic is welcome, to me they are just a small gift! I hope you are enjoying this story, know that I'm trying my very best and although it's the first time ever I'm doing such thing I feel like I'm learning chapter after chapter but that's the reason reviews are so important to me, they could help me greatly, maybe sometimes I'm heading in the wrong direction with the story and I just need someone to say "hey maybe it's better if you go this way instead" it is a way for me to deliver the best story possible. But enough talking here is the next chapter, hope you'll enjoy

Chapter 9

"send words to the Amazons, tell them Xena is coming" she said coldly, to the warlord before her "do not stop for anything, is that clear?" she asked again, receiving a nod for an answer, and continued

"I'll leave the town in a few days, I need some time to settle things down, meanwhile you have to discover the more you can, about the stone"

"and don't say anything-"

"yes Xena I know what to do, I'm no fool" he chimed in, annoyed by Xena's worries and causing her to raise an eyebrow in surprise

"now go" she said, dismissing the man

* * *

She was tired, Gabrielle had been traveling nonstop for the last few weeks and weariness finally caught up with her. She wasn't far from Larissa, one more day of travel, and so decided to camp for the night near a small creek hidden by the foliage

Finally, things were slowing down for her, in the last month everything happened so fast she barely had the time to think about it, and in the last few days she did have a lot to think about

At first she blamed herself for walking away from Xena, she couldn't run away, couldn't be a bard; she realized that her fate was related to Xena's. She had a purpose once again, she would get her back before it was too late, she didn't have the luxury of another life away from the Warrior Princess, she was linked to her, no matter what

She needed to believe that her friend was recoverable, that she wasn't beyond saving

She started to look around and collected some firewood, she hadn't had any luck with hunting this day but her stockings would do for the night and if she rationed it maybe for a couple of days as well

After a couple of tries the blond girl had started the fire, enjoying the warmth it was emanating, at first she was just staring at her creation, the first few tongues of fire dancing and at the same time enveloping the wooden sticks, slowly burning it until nothing but ashes were left, but soon she fell prisoner of it, lost in its beauty she let her mind wander to her lost friend

 _O' Xena the Gods know how much I miss you, you always knew what to do, everything that the fates had thrown us we were always able to shape it and make it our own._

 _Why did you do that? Who's doing this to us? Who's robbing us of life and light? Where did that darkness came from?_

She looked up at the fading sun, behind the hills, still thinking of her Warrior Princess

 _Xena I'm afraid, I'm so afraid, what will happen the next time we meet each other, will the darkness take over you once again? I'm not afraid to die you know that, but I'm scared for the evil that has taken you over why did you let it happen_

She reached for her bag and went for the bread and a piece of dried meet, the creek near her camp providing for all the water she needed. Tomorrow she would probably face Xena once again and she was excited at the prospect yet scared at the same time. Just the thought of it was gripping her stomach

After her quiet dinner, she tried to sleep, preparing herself for the day to come, yet sleep didn't come easy to her, and after a while she found herself wandering across the small camp, she looked at the stars and wondered how Xena was, if she was ok, how will she react upon discovering she was alive

A shadow of a doubt crept over her; maybe she was making a huge mistake, perhaps the fates had given her a second chance and she was wasting it, walking straight in the hands of her killer. She glanced at her bag and saw a reflection coming from it, enhanced by the campfire. She walked the short distance from her bag and removed the source of the reflection. She picked it up and discovered it to be her new scroll. She had lost all her scrolls, along with her broken staff, in the Centaur's village and she missed them, she realized.

She opened it and relished the smell of the paper, an idea formed in her mind and before she could notice it she was writing down her last few days.

Writing had never felt this good to her and she needed it, she poured her soul in the scroll and let everything go, she was so focused on her writings that the bard lost the cognitions of time, and spent hours on writing, only taking a break every now and then to revive the dying fire

She kept writing until sleep finally found her and claimed her.

She woke up to the sound of birds singing in the chill of morning, groaning she rose from her bedroll, looking at the clear sky she considered the sun to be up for several candlemarks now and scolded herself. It took her a few beats to shake away the remaining sleep and then gathered her stuff, preparing to leave.

This day was going to be the most important of her life, yet the fates had other plans in mind for in the very next moment her day took an unexpected turn.

If she hadn't been up all night, writing, she would have been on the road earlier, if she had decided to take the shorter route instead of the long one, or if she didn't stop to take a bath in the creek, then perhaps she would have been on her way to Larissa, but the fates have a strong sense of humor and this series of events led her right into the man she was looking at right now, he came out of nowhere from the dense forest she was traveling and bumped right into her, it took them both a few moments to pass the initial shock

She knew the man, she was staring at the warlord Xena had defeated months ago, Draco was the name, she was left speechless, for once not sure on what to say or do, while the man was blanching, as if he had seen a ghost

He tried to collect himself and spring into action, Gabrielle braced herself waiting for the strike, giving up, cursing herself for her bad luck and waiting for death to claim her, she was surprised when she felt her feet leave the ground, yet death never came, no blade pierced her skin or anything like that, instead she was lifted into a hug so fierce that it emptied her lungs.

When she was reconnected to the ground she was more surprised than ever, she was wondering what in hades was going on, when he spoke

"o' Gabrielle, my sun, I can't believe you are alive my heart is filled with joy to see such beauty once again"

Gabrielle looked at him like she had grown a second head, her mouths hanging from the stupor

"what…?" was the only thing she managed to say after a beat

 _I'm drunk…it got to be, but I didn't even…maybe I'm hallucinating, yep definitely hallucinating! This is some kind of – and what in hades is he doing now why is he on his knees_

"my love, it is a sign of the Gods we must join each other forever in eternity"

 _Maybe not…ok the hallucination is out, maybe he's under some kind of sp…oh right_

"behold my heart, it is yours my love" he said, motioning at his chest, pathetically

 _Oh Gods, he's still under Aphrodite's spell._ She gathered herself and tried to deal with her current situation

"hey Draco, listen, I think I should go now –"

"yes! We shall go wherever you wish, we'll walk together across this earth for eternity"

"maybe not" she said, with a nervous smile

"I'm looking for Xena, you think you can take me to her"

"Xena..." her name seems to bring some memories on the man, who is now focused on something else, yet with a glance to the bard his attention is back on the blond girl in an instant

"I don't think you should meet her, my precious bard, not after what happened with the two of you" he said, a little confused, so she tried to change tactic

"what brings you here of all places, sure you weren't looking for me" she said, grinning nervously

"no, we all thought you dead, I thank the Gods for allowing me to look upon you again" he said with loving eyes, all for the bard, who never felt this awkward in all of her life, then he continued

"I'm on a mission for the warrior princess, surely I wouldn't tell it to anyone but I see no harm in telling it to you, sweetheart"

 _Did she just call me… I'm gonna puke, wait no, focus Gabrielle, maybe it's important_

"and do tell me, what is this mission you speak of" she said hesitantly

"Xena had sent me to the amazons I have a message for them and a duty to fulfill" he answered theatrically, trying to impress the bard, but coming short on that

"She will meet the amazons in a few days"

"and why is that? What's her business with them" she asked, with crescent worry

"Xena's after the Chronos stone, the amazons are hiding it and that is why I'm headed there" he simply said, not leaving the bard's green eyes for a moment

 _Then Xena is after the Chronos stone_

"why is she looking for that stone?" she asked confused

"you don't get it, do you? That stone controls time itself, with that she could shape everyone's destiny, with such power none will ever dare to raise against here"

She went quiet for a moment, a cold chill raising on her back, thinking about Draco's words.

She couldn't let Xena take the Chronos stone, she had to stop the Warrior Princess, which wasn't an easy task; she considered for a moment the place where the stone was hidden, once it would have been a great news, now was just confirming her fear for an alliance between the amazons and Xena. Surely there must have been warriors from the tribe that were still loyal to her, Ephiny was the first one to come to mind, yet probably the majority of the council was favoring the Warrior Princess, not that she could blame them, they knew what Xena was capable of, in a time of war

She realized Draco must have been calling her for a while when she felt his hands shake her out of her thoughts

"Draco, you need to leave me, go to the amazon, find more about the Chronos stone, but do not tell Xena about this, will you?"

He felt like someone punched him in the guts, at first he was confused, then simply angry and betrayed he was about to retort her plane when she spoke again

"please, if you truly care about me, you'll do as I asked" she said, sympathetically, trying to reach for the Warlord's good side

"all right, but after I'm done with that I'm coming for you" he said, pointing a finger to the bard, in a not so romantic way, but soon decided for the best and left the girl alone, not without taking a couple of glances back to the bard

When the warlord left, and quiet once again was Gabrielle's only companion she released a sigh of relief, but then she forced herself to think of a plan to stop Xena; as she had realized earlier it wasn't an easy task for her and admitted reluctantly that she would probably need some help

Surely Joxer won't be the greatest help, maybe he could distract a few amazons if needed, she grinned at that but decided to discard it. No, she needed someone who could sneak up in the amazon's village unnoticed and get out of there quickly if needed

Luckily she knew right away the person for this job, a smile forming on her mind, she just needed to push him a little bit

She looked in the direction of Larissa, silently sending a prayer to the warrior princess and then turned the other way around, following the steps of the love-struck warlord.

It was almost dark when Gabrielle finally reached the village of Herakleum, her supplies running low caused her to ask for hospitality in a local tavern. She walked around in the peaceful village for a bit, until she spotted the best place for the night; of all the taverns she had seen this one seemed to be the less filthy and without as many drunk men as the others, it looked cozy and warm and the smell of food conquered any doubt the bard could have left

It was the first day of tracking, and hopefully she would reach him before the end of the next day; she had a hunch of where it could be, she had heard from travelers of his latest quests and hoped to catch up with him before he'd leave the area, she was just one day away and needed to hurry, but hunger and tiredness demanded her to stop at least for tonight

She walked towards the tavern and entered the small building; as soon as she set foot inside she was overwhelmed with the smell of food and the warmth of fire and her stomach grunted in protest. She made her way to the tavern keeper and bargained for a dinner in exchange of her bardic service

After a couple of shouts and some more talking she managed to cut herself a deal and her dinner was guaranteed along with a place to sleep, although it wasn't exactly a room as she had expected but a more modest stable

And so, she was now standing in front of all men and few women present in the tavern, digging in her memory for the perfect tale for the night

The innkeeper presented her to the crowd and after a moment of thinking she had her story forming in her mind, right before her

"have you ever heard of Demeter and Persephone?" she asked to the presents, peeking their curiosity; a few men moved to get a better look at the blonde girl, a small group, eager to listen at the bard's tale while few others were barely paying any attention

After a few confused and excited looks the bard went on "the myth of Persephone is a story of death and rebirth, of loss and recovery of what is dearest to our soul" she explained with a poetic expression, now capturing the attentions of everyone; many people had stopped eating or talking and were now completely focused on the bard

"One day this little girl of life and laughter, Persephone, was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna when the earth opened beneath her feet. Up from the gap rose Hades, grim God of the Underworld, and abducted her.

And only Zeus, the All-Seeing, knew what had happened.

Broken hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, her hair unbound, wailing into the wind, searching for her little daughter until - at last - Zeus told her what had happened.

Now Demeter was angry as well as heartbroken! She demonstrated her rage by punishing the earth's inhabitants with fierce cold, bitter winds and an end to all fertility. Unless Persephone was returned, the earth would surely perish"

She told her tale in the surreal silence of the inn, each of the presents pending from the bard lips, hanging to every word she spoke, and after a pause, she continued

"Finally Hercules the Hero went down to the kingdom of Hades to negotiate the return of Persephone. But, before she was released, the God of the Underworld tricked Persephone into eating six pomegranate seeds - thus she would always be connected to his realm.

For part of the year Persephone must stay in the Underworld and for part of the year she returns to her mother.

When Demeter and her daughter are together, the earth flourishes with vegetation, but, for four months of the year, when Persephone goes back to Hades, the earth is a barren realm"

She ended her tale in the silence of the inn, after a few beats of stillness the first claps were heard, quickly followed by more until the room was invaded by the sound of them, few people hadn't realized the story was over, while others were already begging for more

The bard modestly bowed her head to the cheering crowd and took her place in the empty table reserved for her, but this night she wasn't destined to eat alone for a good part of the room decided to move closer to her table, sharing dinner with her and cheered once more when she finally gave up to their requests and started to tell another story for the joy of everyone

In that moment, surrounded by strangers, she felt complete once again and discovered happiness in the thrilled expressions of the people around her.

She went on for a while until the day caught up with her and she felt the need to rest. She gently dismissed herself from the crowd and exchanged a few words with the innkeeper, who was the most content of them all for having such extraordinary bard at his place, and begged her to return to his tavern in exchange of a proper bed and food, but she politely declined it, and headed outside

When she reached the stable she found it nicely cozy and without wasting any more time she unrolled her bedroll, laying it on the ground for the night. She reconsidered the day she had and her weird encounter with Draco, the memory of it caused her to grin at the poor man.

The thought of the Chronos stone passed in her mind and she found herself worried once again about Xena

She entered her bedroll and soon sleep claimed her, preparing her for the day to come

 _I wish you were here, you would have liked the story, I have a feeling you won't like very much what I'm planning to do, but I hope you'll understand one day, before it's too late_


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:** Sorry guys for the delay, this is going to be a very hard month for me, especially for its last week do not expect regular updates, I hope you'll forgive me! I finished this chapter at 3.00 a.m. so forgive me if you find any mistake

Anyway, here's the next chapter and enjoy! (can't wait to read some reviews as well, please!)

Chapter 10

He was so close to his target that he could almost grasp it, so sure of himself as he was that nothing could go wrong; but something went wrong, he had to admit it to himself, in the darkness of his cell, the handcuffs around his wrist, along with the chains tiding him to the wall, a clear reminder of his failure

He tried to figure out where he messed up, what was his mistake.

he had been dancing around the real core of the problem for the last few hours, not willing to admit it: he'd been outsmarted

It was hurting more than the steel chains around him; his pride was damaged and he had to do something about it

Just to admit someone could outsmart him was unnerving, by the time he removed the third of his locks he swore to avenge this affront and at the fifth lock already a full plan of escape was forming in his mind

His reputation was at stake here, he had to act and quickly

He removed the last of his chains and picked the prison door in a beat, he gave it a gentle push, slightly cringing at the screeching sound of the old hinges protesting against the movement, but luckily for him no one seemed to notice it, after a quick glance at both sides he made his way out into the empty alley with the cover of dark, where only the light of a torch was shaping the outlines of the dungeon

He kept moving, his hand trailing on the wall as the darkness increased and only the sound of his heartbeat pressing against his ribs could be heard, excited for the imminent escape he moved forward until he reached what he had been hoping to find: there, above him was the silhouette of a windows which will provide his way out of here, although he had to work for it as it appears to be locked, but all in all the man considered, this was proving to be rather easy

He climbed the few feet separating him from freedom and started to work quietly around the windows, the darkness proving to be an enemy this time yet with some patience the last line of defense will surrender to him eventually

"voilà" he exclaimed with a smile and proud of himself, after the sound of the lock finally giving up and falling into the distant ground below him

He soon followed it with an athletic jump and connected with the ground with the same grace, his knees screaming in protest for the sudden pressure

After a moment, he composed himself and turned to look at the wall in front of him, with a grin

He took a few step back still facing the wall until he connected with what felt like a stone, he slowly turned only to face two men standing before him with crossed arms

"oh, not again…"

"would you look at that!" the shorter man grinned to his companion, almost ignoring the evader in front of him, and continued "you won the bet!"

"I told you he isn't the kind of guy who goes for the roof" he said cockily, smiling at his friend in victory, but then was interrupted by the man in question

"wait wait wait, so are you telling me you are the one who got me in this mess in the first place?"

The two of them exchange a quick amused glance with each other before the short one motioned to his friend to go ahead and explain the situation.

"apparently, the local authorities wanted you as well, so we helped them capture you and then we just waited for you to honor us of your presence, simple enough, right?" he said teasing the poor man, before his companion chimed in

"you have something we want, something you stole from us, and believe me you'll either hand it over to us or you'll regret to have left that prison" he said, taking a step closer to the thief menacingly

The thief went quiet for a bit, surprised and scared at the same time of the mess he was in, he tried to recall his past crimes, but only one stood high above the others; he scanned the two man in front of him and his fears were quickly confirmed, but he asked, nonetheless

"you two don't happens to be romans now, do you?" he said, trying a little smile

"Lucius Cornelius Macro and Quintus Licinius Cato and you, thief, will give us the Eagle back or we will take your head off"

Gabrielle took off early from the tavern, accompanied by a particularly chill morning; finally, around noon the pale sun was strong enough to fight the coolness of the day, chasing away the remaining fog and opening a beautiful view in front of her

She stopped for a short break, consuming some of her stockings, not even bothering to start a campfire. She was fighting against time and Xena; she had to reach the amazon village and secure the Chronos Stone before the Warrior Princess

After launch she set out for the small town on the Aegean Sea where she had last heard news of her man, with a fast pace she hurried until a crossroad presented itself before her; after brief pondering she took a decision, following the narrow street opposing the wider yet longer route, or at least she had guessed. The road went on for a while on a flat surface until it took a rapid turn climbing over the steep hill in front of her; she looked at the sudden challenge and after a moment of hesitation she inhaled deeply, spurring herself to move forward and soon, along with the climb, came the first beads of sweat. She moved on, until the bard was engulfed by the rocks and cliffs scattered around, submerging her from view

She re-emerged winner from her climb half a candelmark later, she laid against one of the many rocks surrounding the hilltop catching her breath and looked down at the path she had to follow, first thing to come into view was the Aegean Sea, shining under the clear sky, presenting itself in all its immensity with the must of a trading vessel occasional popping up from the waves, probably heading for Pella, while far in the distance was the town of Herakleum, a series of glitters witnessing its presence, making it easier for her to spot it among the fields surrounding the area. Straining his sight, she could see, following the coastline further north, the city of Pella, capital of the Macedonian Kingdom, only a distant dot from her point of view but if anything, the trading ships were confirming her guess

She was so taken from the breath-taking view that she didn't notice the group of man climbing the other side of the hill until they were just a few paces away

"Gabrielle!" the tall man yelled in surprise, catching the bard off guard, it took her a few seconds to look away from the distant horizon into the more concrete group of man approaching her from below

She was speechless for a moment, a genuine smile shaping into the bard's lips until the two man where within reach and a hand was offered to her; she took it without hesitation and smiled at the young man in front of her and his friend

"how nice to see you again!" she blurted out barely containing her excitement and was about to start a conversation when she saw the man chained behind them who slowly raised a hand, saluting the bard with an awkward smile

"hello Gabrielle" he said shamefully, trying to look smaller

"Autolycus…" she deadpanned, looking at the king of thieves himself

 _Well after all there he is, the search is over, yep…that's the man I was looking for…_

"what did he do now?" he asked slightly annoyed and disappointed

It took the two romans a beat to pass the initial surprise but then Cato was the first one to connect all the dots

"wait a minute, so you know this man?" he asked, pointing at the thief behind him who was pretending not to be paying attention at the conversation, casually looking at a flock of birds flying around

"he's my friend, I can pay you back for whatever he has done, I have some money" she said with a compassionate look, trying to talk his friend out of trouble

"I'm not so sure about that, it's not like he pickpocketed us, see, he stole something of great value and we must get it back" Macro chimed in and Cato continued "he stole the Roman Eagle from the 2nd Legion Augusta"

She looked at the thief in question and called for him, but was ignored so she had to raise her voice to get his attention

"is this true?" she asked softly at the man, who was desperately trying to avoid eye contact but finally gave up under the stare of the bard

"all right all right! I did it! Big news, I'm a thief" he sarcastically said looking at the pair of green eyes who softened after his confession, and went to take his defense

"I'm sure we can easily solve this, I need his help, and if you let him go I bet he's more than willing to give the stolen good back, _right?"_ she asked, putting a lot of force in the last word directed at Autolycus

"hold it" the short man started, taking a step forward "we can't just let him go like that, not after all we've been through to get him, not after what he has done, he has insulted Rome itself with his stunt, we can't let this pass"

"then I'm sure we can do something to comp-" she was trying to say but was quickly interrupted by Macro

"not a chance, besides, what assures us that he won't just run away?"

"I do, please, I need him, many lives depend on us" she said imploring the man "I guarantee for him"

The two man exchange a quick glance with each other, considering the desperate expression and the pain gripping Gabrielle's face before reaching a conclusion at the same time, although it wasn't quite the same

"no" decided firmly Macro

"yes" stated Cato, surprising his companion

Once again, they looked at each other for a moment, they briefly glanced at the bard and the king of thieves with suspect, Macro raising an eyebrow and then started conferring in their native language

"ma che sei matto, cosa ti è saltato in mente?" the short one asked, pointing a finger against the other man, and continued "ti dico che se li lasciamo andare non li vediamo più e allora addio aquila!"

Cato pondered that for a moment and then turned to the blond girl, an idea forming in his mind

"we want the Eagle back" he simply stated, taking an intake of breath before continuing "you have three days" he said, trying to calm his friend's angry temper and added "return the Eagle and all will be well; we will wait near Herakleum, after that we will go after the both of you" he said menacingly, and when he saw the bard was about to free the thief he interrupted her

"wait, before you go, you'll have to accept one more condition, we let you go, you have three days" he said reassuming the deal, and added the last part

"and you will steal something for us" he said pointing at the king of thieves himself, with a sly smile "those are the conditions"

Gabrielle barely took the time to consider it and accepted it without reserve, ignoring the grunts of protest from the king of thieves, she freed him and soon after they departed from the romans, heading north towards the amazon

After a few minutes of walking, once they were out of sight of the romans, Autolycus had found his cockiness once again and was annoying the bard to no end after she told him her plans

"so again, thank you blondie, if you'll excuse me I'll go now"

"where do you think you are going?" she said, a bit surprised looking at the man she just saved

"obviously I'm leaving, I'm not crazy enough to go back to the romans" he simply stated and started to take a few steps away from the girl, who now was dealing with an increasing anger inside her

"Autolycus I gave my word for you" she spitted but was cut short

"and for that I am grate but I have no intention to die in a suicide quest"

"you can't just walk away…" she said, incredulous of the situation

"watch me" he boldly stated, pointing at himself with arrogance, sending the bard into a fit of rage

"Autolycus listen and listen carefully!" she almost yelled, giving in to anger, and moving closer to the thief

"I cannot do this alone, I'm not a hero, surely I'm not Xena" she raised a finger, poking the man every few syllables until she got interrupted

"let's talk about Xena" he counterattacked the bard "if you think I'm crazy enough to go up against her think again"

"what, you think I don't know this?" she yelled now, pushing the thief with all her strength, almost sending him to the ground, then, on the verge of crying she continued

"I'm frightened you know? Every night I have nightmares of her stabbing me, again and again, then I woke up and I must live with it" the first tears were now finding their way on the bard's cheeks, while at the same time she felt her hands shaking from the memories

"I'm just a stupid sidekick who suddenly has to act as a hero, I'm just trying to do what's right but it's the first time I'm doing it by myself, I always had Xena around if anything went wrong, she was the one who would get us out of trouble, who would save the day, now I don't have this luxury and it frightens me, it's so damn scary to be alone all the time, when you know no one will ever come to the rescue if things get messy, when the hero you would have followed to Tartarus and back is the same one who stabbed you and left to bleed out slowly to your death"

"I know I'm not Xena, I do not do somersaults, or war cries, nor I can fight dozens of warriors at once, or throw a Chackram for all that matter, but I know what's right and I'm doing my best to fight for it" she whispered after a short pause "and I know you have a good heart Autolycus, and will listen to me" she finished her monologue, hoping to have reached the thief's heart

"you really are a great bard..." he said hesitantly, still pondering his options "but you cannot ask me to die for a lost cause"

and with that he departed from a broken Gabrielle

"Autolycus…" she tried one more time, but her words were lost in the air, once again she was left alone by the ones she trusted most in this world and for which would give her life for; her heart sunk as she watched resigned her last hope walking away

 _What else could go wrong…_

With the passing of hours, the once clear sky turned into a darker shade, the clouds once assembling in the distance had finally reached the Warrior Princess on her voyage towards the amazon lands, the first drops of rain taking her by surprise

Immediately after the first few scattered drops, more followed and Xena had found herself unable to continue her trip, but luckily shortly after on the road, she found what looked like a tavern along with some stables, providing her a shelter from the now heavy rain dampening her to the feet

After taking care of Argo she hurried towards the entrance of the building, running under the constant rain until she reached the doorstep. Walking inside she was hit by the cozy heat of the room and the smell of food; after all she briefly considered it to be around dinner time if not a little early so she decided to take a break, waiting for the storm to pass, or at least decrease in intensity

She was met by the host and soon escorted to a table near a wall as she had expressly asked and ordered some food. While waiting, her attention moved to the people inside, she suspiciously raised an eyebrow when she noticed that the amount of people was in fact much larger then what should have been expected from this hour, she guessed it must have been related to the weather or simply it was a very good place to eat and soon let that thought go until a rather curious exchange in the next table got her attention

"…anything like her it was as the story itself was alive, I'm telling you, and the way she told it!"

As she peeked at the men she only got the end of the sentence, yet she heard enough to arouse her curiosity, and leaned closer to the other table

"I hoped she was here today, would have loved to hear another story of hers" continued the same man who didn't look very bright to Xena, but then again, there were few chances to find philosophers around here

"seems like you fall in love with this girl" yelled another man, making fun of his mate vigorously patting him on his back while spilling some of his wine in the process

"well she was kinda cute" answered the embarrassed man, causing a fit of laughter to find its way on his table

"I tell you what, next time I see her I'll…" he was saying but Xena had heard enough for she stood up from her table and covered the short distance to the group of men, cutting short the man's speech, and going right to the point

"this girl you speak of, what was she like" she asked in a hurry, straight to the man, imposing her presence over him

"she was good, she was awesome, her stories were-"

"I meant what did she look like" she asked again, annoyed by the half-drunk man while at the same time she tried to keep her emotions under control, first doubts and conclusions already spreading like wildfire in her mind, she knew it couldn't be possible…

"uhm... well, she was short and had blonde hair" he started, while trying to recollect more details from the memory

"she had green eyes" he suddenly blurted out as he remembered, and at that she felt a very cold chill raising in her spine

"when was that?" she coldly asked, trying to hide her internal turmoil

"she was here two days ago, she was goin north, I dunno if she'll be back" he said but didn't realize that the warrior woman was gone until he finished talking; after taking a quick look around he just shrugged it off and continued chatting with his mates not really minding at the weird encounter

In fact, no one noticed the Warrior Princess storming outside the tavern with a fury in her blue eyes, she knew this was no coincidence, Gabrielle was alive, proof of her failure, and as that miserable man said, was probably heading north to the amazons as well, which meant that somehow she knew about the Chronos Stone and that was driving Xena insane, Gabrielle was going against her, betraying her once more, proving Ares' words, in which, after the last few visits from the God of War she had learned to accept, hating everything about that little bard

She threw a punch at the wooden wall of the stable in a fit of rage while letting out a scream, thinking about the blond girl and how she had fooled her

She was alive, Gabrielle was alive, only the thought of that was sending shivers down her spine while her blind rage was demanding the bard's blood, the few sparks of light in her heart begged her to spare the girl

"Xena!" a familiar voice under the rain brought her away from her thoughts "I thought you wanted to avenge the death of your son" asked the hooded figure a few steps in front of Xena

"and so I did! You bastard!" spitted out in her rage the warrior princess not really willing to deal with him now

"by killing Gabrielle? Well it seems she's pretty alive to me"

"you knew it?"

"I am a God, Xena, the question is what will you do?" he asked, moving closer to the Warrior Princess, enveloping her in his arms and then whispered, barely few inches away from her lips

"Will you kill blondie when you get the chance or you'll let her hurt you once more?" he asked in a whisper, almost teasing her, but was pushed away in a hasty motion

"when the time comes, it will be done, I will kill Gabrielle" she said coldly, an evil grin carving its place on the God's face, who, satisfied of his encounter, disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the Warrior Princess alone under the rain in her thoughts


	11. Chapter 11

**AN:** this is very important, Velasca's betrayal hasn't happened yet in this story, so technically Gabrielle is still an amazon princess right now and I have made a mistake without realizing it, as the plot was already formed in my mind (if I recall this correctly) I might have once referred to Gabrielle as Queen of the Amazons while in fact she still is a Princess, I beg pardon for this little slip, it happens!

 **AN:** sorry for the irregular updates but I have a few exams in these days and I don't have much free time. Also from this chapter I'm trying a slightly different writing style, I hope it to be an improvement!

 **AN:** ok, last one I promise, special thanks to Lady Shadow 92 for her reviews, and all of you other guys following this story as well! I'd love to see some reviews from you too but again, thank you lady shadow!

Chapter 11

It was cold, the chill of night still inside her bones although the rising sun was slowly heating the blonde girl who fought the cold with nothing but a simple blanket while sleeping for just a few hours. She woke up when it was still dark and moved quickly towards the amazon village, reaching the outskirt of town at the same time the sun started to peer over the crests of the eastern mountains

She moved quietly using the cover of threes as she was taught by the same people she was now sneaking on. She didn't have a plan and was running out of time, she couldn't wait the cover of darkness for the Warrior Princess would be here before nightfall and so she was forced to move now, hoping that the feeble light of dawn would still provide the bit of cover she needed to move safely across the huts

One of her advantages as an Amazon Princess was to know every single patrol route and their timing, she lingered a bit on the word "Princess" with a bit of sadness, but moved on nonetheless and reached safely the border of her village, like an intruder in her own house, and for a moment was surprised to see no one in sight. She approached the nearest hut, running the last few paces until she was in contact with its fabric and lowered herself in the proximity of the window. she reached its corner and started to peek over

After a moment of silence, she heard some footsteps and hurried to take cover against the thatched wall, disappearing from the line of sight, she breathed in deeply, fighting the increasing adrenaline and fear and forced herself to move. She leaned over the same corner and saw a small group of amazons moving towards the center of the village.

She looked at them, raising an eyebrow in suspicion as she noticed their ceremonial dresses, she thought it to be rather curious especially considering it was barely past down

 _What if Xena's already here?_

The thought instilled a deep fear in her heart, she needed to move and quickly; she followed the small group almost recklessly before they disappeared out of sight. She quickly traced them nonetheless and found them in the village's square along with the rest of the tribe. The early hour and the whole tribe reunited confirmed her earlier suspect and she felt her legs shaking, immediately her mind raced, creating thousands of different scenarios in which Xena somehow had gotten to the Chronos Stone before her.

In that moment, Gabrielle was frightened, she would have started panicking if not for one small detail that caught her attention. Immediately the fear lingering in her heart was replaced by something worst, for there, in the middle of the square were Ephiny, Solari and two more of her amazon friends, chained against a pole

She couldn't hear the words spoken by the Queen, but as soon as she removed her ceremonial mask the bard was hit by a wave of confusion first and horror then, as the face behind the mask didn't belong to the Queen she knew, instead it was the one of a dark haired amazon, with a coldness in her eyes that sent chills crawling down Gabrielle's spine, and In a moment of terror she realized this was no welcoming committee for Xena but was in fact a public execution

She dared to move closer to the mob, partially relying on the fact that their attention was drawn by the young woman on the wooden platform shouting words against the bounded amazons and receiving a loud roar every time she finished a phrase, although the blonde princess realized not everyone was cheering

She kept moving forward until she was whiting earshot and looked again at the amazon towering over her friends; her face seemed familiar yet she had no memory of her

"for the betrayal of our nation, of your Queen and our traditions; blessed by the approval of the elder council" she moved closer to the prisoners, slowly unsheathing her sword while covering the last step from Ephiny "I, Queen Velasca of the Amazons, by the will of our Goddess Artemis" she raised her sword over the amazon's head, ready to strike against her exposed neck, and started to charge the blow "sentence you to death"

"WAIT!"

a shout, a yell was heard in the square and then only silence, hundreds of people there, waiting, not making a noise, their breaths only witnesses of their presence. The mob departed quietly, while an enraged Queen was scanning it looking for the one who would dare to defy her will, and there she was, as soon as the mob split into two separate groups, leaving an empty space in the middle, there, only one person stood tall and proud. Velasca had to double check to make sure she was seeing properly but then her surprised expression was replaced with an evil grin

"it is our Princess!" she raised her arms as to welcome the newcomer, hiding her hate behind the fake smile

A glimmer of hope lightened the chained amazons, who cheered her name but were soon shut down by Velasca

"they are responsible for betraying me" she smiled at the woman in victory, trying to justify her actions "their Queen"

"what happened to Queen Melosa?" the bard asked defiantly

"she killed her" Ephiny answered her question, enraged, and continued "but now that you are back she has no power anymore, you can claim it" she shouted before Velasca hit her with all her strength on the jaw

"this is none your business, this is not your tribe, not anymore" she coldly spitted at the bard who found herself in a hard position

The implications of Ephiny's words were huge, she couldn't be the Queen, surely not with Xena, although it could make thing easier for the stone it also meant fighting against Velasca, but she had to fight her nonetheless, to save her friends' life. She had no choice

She observed her opponent and suddenly wasn't so sure anymore, although the bard looked calm and composed on the outside, inside she knew her chances with the amazon were very thin, she was afraid to lose for this time it wouldn't just mean her life but Ephiny and the other's as well

She had to be strong, somehow, she found the courage she needed deep within her and approached the evil Queen, it was her only chance for saving them

"I challenge you, Queen of the amazons, in a royal fight; this madness ends now" she yelled, strong and clear, receiving a boar from the mob that could be heard from miles away

"so you choose death, how heroic..." she mockingly whispered, making sure only the bard could hear her

She walked on the platform, ignoring the cold stare from the Queen, and approached her wounded friend; she crouched to look into the amazon's eyes and saw the happiness and faith she was creating in her, she focused on her jaw, one hand softly caressing it softly, always trying to look out for others before herself she was satisfied when she saw no other injuries and focused back on the blue eyes scanning for her, which reminded her of someone else, and immediately a fit of sadness hit her, watering the green eyes with the first tears

"Gabrielle, I know you can defeat her, you gave us hope again, thank you"

She raised, turning slowly to the waiting Queen who'd been starring at her back pondering whatever to stab her right there right then but decided to go wait for the fair fight

"choose your weapon"

Gabrielle had no doubts on her choice, there, just a few feet below her she could feel the piercing glares of a whole nation watching her, every breath, every move she made it was followed by silent eyes.

"staff" she said calmly, while at the same time she could feel her hands starting to shake for the pressure on her, once again she gazed at the blue eyes seeking some courage from them

This wasn't the way she expected this day to go, it wasn't the way it was meant to, she silently sent a prayer to the gods and followed Velasca below, in the middle of the square where the other amazons had already formed a circle while shouting both names in a vain attempt to cheer them, or at least it was for her. She could feel her heartbeat pounding strongly against her chest, almost hurting her; closing her eyes for a moment she could even hear it such was its strength, pulsating in her veins. She realized it was looking as if she was walking for a procession, heading to a slaughter and certain death, so she mustered all her courage and pride remaining and raised her head proudly while entering the circle of amazons, while one was offering her the weapon

"thank you" she could barely speak but tried to thank the woman anyway, although she found her voice cracking on the last word for the stress

She moved the staff in her hands, weighing it, the familiar feeling already relaxing her a bit

She saw her opponent dancing elegantly with the staff in her hands until she was ready to fight; they met each other in the middle of the circle, she could feel the hateful glare from the Queen but paid no attention, no words were spoken, no idiotic one liners, showing the importance of the fight and the tension gripping the two women, although one was successfully hiding it behind the hate.

At first they started circling each other, studying one another until the first blows were dealt, Velasca struck in a couple of extremely fast hits although they held not a lot of strength, to brake the bard's defense but she proved it to be well built as she parried every blow with grace, without exposing herself

Gabrielle decided to wait, she had faced opponents like her she just had to wait until Velasca's patience would run short and decide to go for a reckless attack, giving the bard all the chance she needed to defeat her, only it wasn't happening, the bard was starting to fear for her plane as the Amazon Queen was still calm on her feet and circling the bard until she decided to go with faster hits which the bard barely had the time to deflect with her staff, and after this second wave of faster attacks she worryingly found herself short of breath, with her heart pounding fast against her rib cage, almost deafening her

It was so fast that only a few experienced amazons saw it coming, but the blonde girl wasn't one of them, instead she felt like a chariot was running over her, for a moment her vision went white and felt something warm on her face, her vision came back to her and for a moment she had two Velasca before her. She quickly shaken it away but was taken by surprise by the next couple of hits who struck her sides, sending her in a jolt of pain, she could feel her ribs protesting against the powerful blows and needed time she didn't have to catch her breath, she limped away from the Queen trying to buy a few seconds, one hands sliding away from the staff, reaching her wounded side

Velasca took the opportunity and charged a powerful blow against the bard, which she managed to deflect as she expected and quickly went for another fast strike on the bard's belly which she didn't see and sent her to the ground

In a moment, the little girl found herself starring at the morning sky before it faded away and darkness took her, she found herself starring at a couple of very familiar blue eyes and raised a hand to reach for the warrior's face with a tear threatening to leave her eyes but when she was close enough to touch it, it disappeared, leaving its place to a grinning dark haired amazon

In a desperate move, mixed with hate and anger the bard struck at her opponent's leg, catching her by surprise and sending her to the ground; she stood up, taking her former place, and started to hit the fallen amazon in the face and on the head with forceful blows, feed by the anger flowing in her veins and didn't stop her rampage not even when blood started to sock her clothes and staff, or when the amazon under her went still from the attack, only when every last piece of strength left her she stopped. It was over, Gabrielle had won

It took her a few moments to realize that, as she tried to shake away the rage in her, she found herself shaking uncontrollably

But the wrath of her actions and the immediate after effects made her lower her guard and didn't noticed the glimmer coming from beneath her, she only screamed when an inhuman pain struck her leg, she looked down and saw the tip of a blade coming out of her right leg, just above the knee, on her thigh

She almost passed out from the view, blood now trickling down, covering the skin and soaking the ground under her she had never felt such tremendous pain and met the ground with force once more, only this time she saw an enraged Velasca, her face an indistinguishable mix of blood, standing above her with the same dagger she used against her, ready to pierce her heart. Instinctively she put her hands up on the line of the blade, fighting against the crazed Queen

It was just a moment but it was enough for her to truly fear for her life, the last thing she saw before passing out where the other amazons moving against their former Queen, quickly stopping her from doing any more damage, before darkness decided to claim her once more.

She woke up a few hours later, the first thing she noticed was the excruciating pain on her leg, she immediately tried to touch it when a hand stopped her from doing so; she looked up and found herself starring at a curly blonde woman that was giving her a warm smile

"don't touch it" she lifted the bard's hands and delicately placed it on her belly "you saved our lives today little one" she smiled, loosing herself in her green eyes "thank you"

"Ephiny…" the other blondie tried to sit up but was promptly stopped by the amazon

"easy there, just try to rest ok, it's a nasty wound" she said, referring to her leg "but if we are lucky it will heal in a couple of weeks, if you treat it properly" the taller woman grinned, but then seemed lost in her thoughts for a moment and suddenly turned serious

"Gabrielle, we need to talk"

The smile on the bard face all but disappeared at the seriousness of Ephiny's stone, guessing what was on her mind

"Xena's coming in a few hours, what are your orders?"

At that the bard fell silent, lost in the meaning of the amazon's words until the truth hit her at once, she was Queen of the Amazons a, whole tribe was depending on her. It come to her as a shock but then she focused on the next problem, she had the Warrior Princess, her once friend, coming to the tribe to get the Chronos Stone and she had to stop her, although it could mean endangering the whole tribe, even if she ordered Xena to be killed, but quickly discarded it, she couldn't, no matter what, allow herself to give such order, she had to act, first she needed to move the stone away from the village only that it could prove to be a problem as not even a Queen was allowed to come close to the Stone since Artemis Gave it as a gift to the whole tribe

She was thinking about it, when the solution decided to present itself in the form of the man Solari was dragging inside

"my queen, we found this scum of a man sneaking around the village" she said reluctantly, pushing him in front of her before the queen

Gabrielle grinned at that, relief showing on her face as the solution to all her problem was chained right in front of her

"Autolycus" she smiled and then ordered the amazons to leave her

"but my queen" they punctually protested but after a glare from the bard they were gone

"how nice of you to come" she teased the king of thieves

"how nice indeed" the man answered sarcastically

"seems like I have the perfect job for you"

Her smile faded when she noticed, against her orders, the same amazon of before rushing inside her hut once again, only this time with a more worried look on her face

"sorry to interrupt my queen…" she tried to buy some time, waiting for some kind of reaction from the bard but when saw none she swallowed and continued "Xena is here, she reached our borders and we are escorting her here as we speak"

It took a moment for the bard to steady her heartbeats but quickly gained control over her emotions and tried to put together a plan although Solari still standing there awkwardly and looking at her was throwing the blonde off focus

"is there something else wrong?" she asked sarcastically

"Velasca has escaped"

"WHAT?!"


	12. Chapter 12

**AN:** Hello guys! Sorry for the delay but I have been really busy lately, inside and outside University. I have good news for you, I finally found a beta reader and she's helping me a lot so, a big shout out to Artsoccer for her amazing work! Thank you.

From now on I'm planning on further updates but with a significant increase in quality. Or at least I hope! Again, sorry for a slightly shorter chapter but it's setting the bases for what's to come and I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless.

Chapter 12

Gabrielle had made it to the council hut despite Epinhy's protests, who was taking seriously her new role as regent. She walked fast, doing her best to hide the hideous pain in her leg although the Amazon next to her had read easily through her lies, further discouraging the new queen to move, but the bard was strong willed and had lot to do, so there she was, standing before the most important people in her tribe for the last half candelmark, fulfilling her duty as queen although it was taking its toll

"It's not this simple Eponin, you all saw Velasca's conditions after the fight, and yet she escaped" she halted, starring at every woman present in the room before continuing "She didn't do it alone, someone helped her, send a couple of warriors out there, find out if there's any Amazon missing, then report to me immediately"

After her words left her mouth she was met with silence, the tall girl bowed to her queen and left the hut while the other Amazons there exchanged worried looks to each other before Solari took her chance to speak and voice their suspects "Are you suggesting there is a traitor among us?" she hesitantly asked, encouraging a few whispers

"I'm afraid it could be more than one, we need to be careful, Velasca was popular among the tribe, her fall wasn't taken well by many"

"And what about Xena, what will we do with her?" another Amazon asked, catching Gabrielle off guard

She hadn't thought of anything. Velasca's escapes and the possibility of a divided tribe was her main concern at the moment. She took some time to find the answer, receiving a few suspicious glares

"I will deal with her" she decided in a spur of the moment immediately wishing to take it back but it was too late, so she continued nonetheless "When she arrives I will meet her alone"

"My queen this way if anything goes wrong we cannot assure your safety" Ephiny chimed in "and with your leg- "

"Ephiny I KNOW!" Gabrielle snapped at her friend, silencing the curly Amazon; she didn't mean to shout but the tension of the situation and the pain constantly bugging her were finally getting to her, making her lose focus

"I'm sorry…" she tried to apologize but was met with silence again, remembering she wasn't alone with Ephiny she scanned the eyes of the other women and saw the embarrassment and surprise for her outburst. Suddenly a thought entered her mind

"Xena had sent a man here a few days ago, Draco, where is he?"

A few of the Amazons exchanged a confused glare before Solari found the courage to hesitantly answer "My Queen, he's gone, he had left the day after he got here, we didn't stop him"

If that surprised Gabrielle she didn't show it "All right, I think that would be all, you know what to do, if you'll excuse me now" she coldly stated, deciding she had enough. The bard made her move to leave the building after disbanding the council. She hastily walked out of the house and almost fell on the front steps but luckily was caught by her regent that with a quick move had saved her from an embarrassing and potentially painful situation

"Thank you" she said faintly, receiving a compassionate glare

"That's what I'm here for" the Amazon tried to cheer up the bard, with a reassuring smile

They headed to the queen hut in silence, the bard leaning against her regent for support while mentally cursing her leg. In that moment, she felt like a weight for the tribe rather than a Queen, she was supposed to lead her people, yet she could barely walk from one place to another.

"What's wrong?" the sudden question brought the bard out of her daze and she faced a pair of blue eyes starring right through her

"I can't do this Ephiny" she spitted out, letting it go "I'm not worthy to be Queen, I can't do anything right lately"

Her friend looked at her intently as if trying to find out whenever she was joking or actually being serious "Don't you ever say anything like that, Gabrielle you probably are the best thing that has ever happened to this Gods forsaken tribe, you brought peace and joy, a safe future for all of us" she strengthened her grip on the bard's arm, trying to empathize her words "you always look out for others, placing them before you, not many people do that"

A small smile escaped the bard's lips, once they reached the doorstep of her hut the regent bowed to the blond girl, disbanding herself

"Stay with me" she said on instinct, without thinking. She'd been almost completely alone since Xena left her and now had found herself craving for human interactions, she simply didn't want to be left alone, not now that she had found a family in Epinhy, she still had thousands of doubts and thoughts and fears in her mind but all that mattered now, all that she wanted was to spend time in company of a friend. Ephiny smiled at her request, but didn't decline it, on contrary she motioned for the door, and happily followed the bard inside.

As the pain on her leg was getting unbearable the short girl found herself heading straight towards her bed and dropped on it, exhausted by the council and the physical activity, but causing a small grin to escape the regent

"How long you will you play the part of the tough girl?" she asked, teasing the bard, approaching the corner of the bed to sit on it

"Shut up" she answered laughing at the curly girl, emitting a groan of pain once the weight of the regent settled on the fabric of the bed

"Gods do you have to move like an elephant?"

"Oh, shut up" she said nonchalantly

"That's how you talk to your Queen?"

"So, when you tell me to shut up is fine but when I do I get this crap?"

"I'm the Queen...?" she explained, raising a hand to emphasize her point, while smiling at deep blue eyes

"Besides Xena was always the one to play that part, not me"

After a few seconds of silence the smile disappeared on the bard's face, for darker thoughts had entered her mind; Ephiny must have noticed it as well for in the next moment she turned serious as well

"Oh Ephiny, what am I gonna do?"

"Why don't you start by telling me exactly what happened, since the beginning?"

After pondering it for a bit she did so, the bard told her everything, every detail, every emotion, every memory she had; she opened up to her friend until there was nothing more to be told, and found herself starring awkwardly and with a bit of sadness at the girl sitting in the corner of the bed.

"Gabrielle…" the regent reached for the bard's face, one hand softly caressing away the beginning of a tear in the green eyes

"It's ok Eph"

"If anything happens to me today I want you to take my place as a Queen" she begged the taller woman, who looked at her hesitantly

"Nothing will happen to you I promise, not until you are with us, we would all gladly die for you, that's the effect you have on us" she said smiling, proud of her words. The bard took it in silently but decided to be prepared for every possibility nonetheless

"Ephiny, I want you to promise me you'll take care of the tribe"

The regent looked at her intently in the eyes "I promise" she softly whispered, bringing her hands to her heart, closed in a fist

"You think you can reach out to her?" she suddenly asked to her queen, trying to change topic

The short girl closed her green eyes, thinking about an answer not sure of anything lately "I don't know Eph, I don't know what will happen, how she will react, I only know that there's some light in her, maybe I can still reason with her" she thought about it "or maybe I'm just being deluded"

"If there's anyone who can do it, it's you, we all have faith in you my Queen" She tried with a large smile

"There's no need to call me like that, not here Eph" She glared at her friend "besides, I don't think I'm making a big impression with this leg, limping around like an old woman" She tried to joked, although there was a seriousness hidden in her tone, that the regent had caught

"Oh, come on Your Majesty, it's just a flesh wound, it will heal in a couple of weeks"

"Too bad I don't have a couple of weeks"

"Sure you do, after this thing is over you will have plenty of time to heal"

"Ah curse it, you're probably right" the bard allowed a small grin to find it's place on her lips

"See" Ephiny smiled in triumph, crossing her arms in victory "I told you _Your Highness_ "

"Ephiny…"

"Yes"

"Tell me again why I fought Velasca to save you?" she teased at her regent, now smiling fully

"Why, of course so I could annoy you to no end! Admit it, you would have missed me too much"

"You're giving yourself way too much credit" she joked

"Ouch!"

She was about to protest when a knock on the door interrupted her conversation, she quickly tried to sit up rise but the pain in her leg and a very zealous regent stopped her in her action.

"Come on in" Ephiny shouted for her, receiving an amused glare from the bard; shortly after, Eponin came inside quickly reaching the couple near the bed and profusely bowed to her Queen

"My queen I bring words from the patrol, the Warrior Princess will be here in a few minutes, what you want us to do?" she waited giving time for Gabrielle to answer

"See that you receive our guest, entertain her until I send words to you, then bring her to the council hut, I want to be left alone with her there, make sure of that"

"Yes, my Queen"

She squeezed her eyes, trying to focus on anything she could have missed, making sure everything was as she ordered

"And Eponin, while you are with Xena make sure to keep her in sight all the time, is that clear?"

"Yes, my Queen" she repeated in the same tone

"My Queen, about Velasca…" Gabrielle froze upon hearing that name

"Go on" she exhorted the woman before her, with a bit of hesitation in her voice as well

"Well we searched the village, and we have two Amazons missing, as you said" Eponin's words confirming Gabrielle's prior suspect "Although we have no trace of them and Velasca, they just disappeared from our borders I'm afraid"

"All right" she said, suddenly tired, the weight of her new role catching up on her "First thing first, we'll deal with Velasca after Xena, you can go now" she simply said, receiving a bow

She followed the Amazon with her eyes until she left the hut in silence and closed the door, successfully snapping the bard back into focus

"Come on Eph, help me up, we got work to do".

As soon as they were ready they left the house in their regal attire, moving to the now empty council hut. For the first time Gabrielle looked like a proper Queen in a full ceremonial dress, although it was hitching her everywhere, making her wonder how did all the precedent Queens survived with it, but they still made it to the building nevertheless and entered it

"Stop it" the regent scolded her Queen, now sitting on her throne, busy scratching every inch of her skin "You look more like a monkey rather than an Amazon Queen"

"It's not my fault if it hitches so bad!" the bard tried to justify herself and felt like a child once again

"Just don't think about it" she said, exasperated by the short girl's behavior

"Yeah, it's so simple for you, your dress doesn't look as bad" she said and took her chance to tease her friend "in fact it doesn't even seems like a dress, I mean, you are pretty much walking around half naked!"

"It appears I am not the queen; now, will you stop it or do I have to knock you out?"

"That's not a bad idea actually" the bard said thoughtfully

"Gabrielle..." Ephiny glared at her Queen

"What? I was joking" she simply said, raising her hands in defense. She heard some commotion coming from outside, in the distance and understood, it probably was the time

 _Here we go_

"All right Eph"

"Are you sure about this my Que- Gabrielle?" she quickly corrected her sentence, trying to convince the short girl once again, hoping for the bard's common sense, but only witnessed her stubbornness

"Go Ephiny, I'll be all right, I promise"

"You know I'll be just outside"

The two smiled at each other in silence for a moment before the opening of the main doors crushed this moment of peace

"My queen, the Warrior Princess has arrived" Solari shouted from across the room, loud and clear

"Call Eponin, tell her I'm ready to meet our guest"

"My Queen" she bowed and disappeared from view, leaving her momentarily alone with Ephiny, who was still starring at her in apprehension, she opened her mouth to say something again but was promptly interrupted by the bard "Ephiny! It's ok, I'll be all right" she said half exasperated but still smiling at the taller woman, who silently bowed to her queen, looking into her green eyes one last time before leaving; her steps echoing on the stone floor until she was out of sight behind the heavy doors

Shortly after, the dying sound of the departing steps where replaced by a deafening silence that accompanied the bard in her waiting. She tapped her fingers nervously on the wooden armrest of the throne She could hear the rhythmic beat of her heart pounding against her chest such was the growing anxiety in her for the encounter. After what felt like an hour to Gabrielle the doors finally opened slowly once again, screeching against their hinges and projecting inside the silhouette of the Warrior Princess who progressively took shape, standing in the middle of the doorway

 _Gods here we go_


	13. Chapter 13

**AN:** sorry for the late update guys! In the next few days I'll go back to the older chapters to edit them, I hope it won't take me too much time, but expect less frequent updates nonetheless. Sorry! Here's chapter 13, and I hope you'll enjoy!

Chapter 13

She was there. It wasn't a dream, it was real. Gabrielle found herself starring right into those blue eyes she used to love so much over the last few years. Yet, they were now glaring coldly at her; she couldn't see any emotions on them, any trace of feelings that could witness the humanity of the owner behind them.

No, Gabrielle was looking at cold emotionless eyes, and she had to remember the Xena she knew was gone, although a part of her would never allow herself to believe it, no matter what. She watched Xena walking in silence, crossing the short distance from the entrance to her throne and saw for the first time the real Warrior Princess, the same one the bards sang once, it was here now, right before her.

She tried to calm the fear flowing in her body before standing tall before the dark warrior, although the pain in her leg, combined with the adrenaline had her shaking a bit, and for a moment she hoped that the taller woman wouldn't notice it.

"I welcome you, Xena, Warrior Princ-", she started saying, but was quickly interrupted by the other woman.

"I see they made you Queen." she stated coldly, her eyes fixed in one spot.

"Yes…" she was about to explain it when once again the warrior's words filled the room, slightly annoying the Amazon Queen.

"Quite the trick you pulled there." she continued, looking around the room, studying its every detail and taking a few steps around.

"It mustn't have been too hard convincing the Amazons." she said thoughtfully, turning up the palm of her hand "on one hand, you are pretty good at convincing people", now it was the other hand's turn "on the other hand the Amazons are known to be quite naïve, they would follow anyone who knows how to – "

"Enough!" Gabrielle yelled in rage, her voice echoing in the large room, outraged by Xena's bantering of her Amazon sisters.

"You will not speak like this of _my_ tribe." she said menacingly, taking a step towards the warrior, who was now grinning for the angry reaction she had caused.

"So you care about them." she snickered at the bard "Gotta be careful then, we wouldn't want anything to happen to their little precious Amazon Queen now, wouldn't we?" she said grimly, with a small grin on her lips revealing the snake she had become.

She liked it, Gabrielle could see it, she enjoyed tormenting the bard, pricking her and then waiting for a reaction, it was her plan and she cursed herself for playing her game.

"what is it that you want, Xena?" she asked directly, hoping to stop her play. The Warrior Princess pondered her question for a bit, thinking whatever to answer it or playing her little game some more.

"my my… what happen to the 'I welcome you' part? Well if you care to know, there is something you have here, I know you are hiding it, and I'd like to have it." she said moving one step closer to the Queen. Gabrielle stood tall before the Warrior Princess not giving up ground to her, doing her best to ignore her act of arrogance, and remained calm and steady.

"This is my home, my place and my kingdom. You have no claim over it and surely you are in no position to advance such requests." she clearly stated, remaining cold and detached.

The Warrior Princess for once was taken by surprise but quickly dismissed it, instead she studied intensely the bard as a predator would do before attacking its prey, she moved even closer, slightly leaning forward, sending shivers down the blonde girl's spine, purring grimly at the bard's reaction.

"Careful Gabrielle, you're walking on some thin ice there." she whispered into her ear, and slowly retracted herself, taking a few steps back while talking "Seems like you are forgetting I have an army on my back, you of all should know better than to bring a war to your people."

"I have heard words about the hospitality of the Amazons, I hope I'm allowed to stay as a guest in the village until we've sorted our things out." she said in a slightly louder than necessary tone, while grinning

"I'm sure Eponin will take good care of you in your time with us, you can have the guest hut. Furthermore, we will have a feast tonight, a candelmark after sunset, as honored guest you're invited as well." she said, not really pleased, but trying to be kind nonetheless.

Suddenly Xena made a step forward, coming toe to toe with Gabrielle, and for the first time she looked intently in her green eyes that were fighting against the piercing blue irises and both remained speechless for a moment. A glimpse of lust passed in the warrior's eyes, for nothing but a moment, and then was gone, for something else lingered there; the bard noticed it, hidden, unseen by many but not by her. She wasn't even sure if it was real or she just imagined it but for the first time she saw the old Xena concealed by the cold expressions, but as soon as she tried to reach for it, it was gone, as fast as it came.

"I'll see you at the feast then." The Warrior Princess said coldly, after a beat.

After that she spun around, heading for the entrance and allowing the bard to release the breath she had been holding for what felt like hours. As if Xena had perceived that she decided to turn around in that precise moment, catching the bard off guard.

"How did you do it?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere, leaving the bard confused for a moment before further explaining "How did you survive?"

"Surely it wasn't for your lack of trying." she coldly answered to the Warrior Princess, who had an unreadable face after she heard that but quickly hidden it away.

"It was a pleasure talking to you, Queen Gabrielle." she said mockingly, after a ridiculous bow "And to our next meeting."

After that she was gone, leaving Gabrielle alone, sending a prayer to the gods, thanking them for the encounter to be finally over.

She looked up when the sound of the doors opening reached her ears, and found Ephiny almost rushing inside with a worried look on her face.

"How did it go?" she asked, not even half way in the room

"Not too bad." she answered after a moment of hesitation, Gabrielle wanted to add more details but discovered herself short of words, she still had to metabolize her recent encounter and wasn't sure if 'not too bad' was in fact the truth. The Amazon must have noticed her hesitation for she reached the bard's side and gently shaken her shoulders and arms in a comforting motion, as to warm them.

"You ok?" she asked softly, barely above a whisper, with a compassionate look

"Yes, yes I'm fine." Tried to cut short the bad, although it wasn't natural to her as she had always been a chatty one

"Oh Ephiny I don't know, it's like she was another person, something changed in here, it felt like talking to a stranger." she said discomforted but Ephiny tried to see the bright side nonetheless

"Maybe you just need time, I'm sure she'll see reason before it's too late." The Amazon suggested hopefully.

"She won't listen to me, I don't think we can get out of this one easily." The encountered had left a big impact on her bard, seeing her old friend act coldly before her was starting to affect the bard's emotion and for once she wished to be far away, in Athens, living her life alone, away from the Warrior Princess and all the troubles, but quickly pushed it away, she was here, she was a Queen and it was time she acted as one, although she wasn't exactly experienced she had to try, she owed it to her tribe. A light shake pushed her out of her thoughts as Ephiny had been trying to communicate with the bard.

"You sure you're ok?" she asked once more, with a dubious tone, but was quickly answered with a smile and a nod of the bard's head.

"I'm fine Ephiny, I just need some time alone, make sure Xena is watched all the time, I'll see you at the feast, ok?" she asked hesitantly, hoping the Amazon would leave her some room

"Yes, my Queen." she bowed formally and understood it was best to leave Gabrielle alone with her thoughts, she exited the room and shortly after was followed by her Queen, which she noticed, was still slightly limping because of her leg.

As Gabrielle stepped outside, following her regent, she let her sight wander at the village in front of her and her nation, which of course she was proud of, and it that moment realized that those people's lives were at stake, it all depended on her decisions and how she'll deal with the Warrior Princess. Suddenly she found the weight of the nation weighing on her shoulders and her brain went in full mode trying to find a solution to her problem, although she had already taken a few steps in that direction.

She kept thinking; standing near the entrance of the royal hut, leaning on its wall, until she realized someone was watching her, she looked around suspiciously but didn't find anything out of the ordinary until she caught a glitter coming from the woods just outside the border of the village, she had to double check in order to be sure she wasn't just imagining it, but after a moment she was sure someone was hiding in the bushes just a few paces away from here, and she had a fair idea of who it could be although it couldn't possible mean good news if that was indeed the case.

She looked around, making sure no one was paying attention to her and headed towards the wood until she guessed to be within a few meters away from the mysterious man, although she couldn't see it.

"Pssst!" The sound came from her left, she crouched instinctively and headed towards it until she found the man hiding in the foliage.

"Autolycus!" she yelled, cursing herself immediately after that, and covered her mouth for her mistake.

"Will you be quiet?!" Came the answer from the man, who looked around, making sure no one heard the blonde girl.

"I'm sorry!" she whispered back, before realizing she shouldn't be sorry at all and more importantly she had given a very important job to the man, that only the two of them knew, and for him to be here only meant trouble.

"What are you doing here?" she asked enraged, although she had to keep it down, not willing to attract unwanted attentions.

"Gabrielle, the Chronos Stone is gone." He said, like it was the end of the world, which surprised the bard more than the words themselves.

"Of course it's gone, I asked you to steal it so we could keep it away from Xena! I'd be worried if it was still there." she said nervously, not really wishing to talk about such delicate subject out in the open, where everyone could hear.

"No, I mean it was already gone before I got in!" He explained annoyed by the bard's silliness.

"What you mean it was already gone?!" The bard yelled and almost bit off a finger to the King of Thieves when he hastily covered her mouth with his hands. After the bard glared at him glacially he slowly removed his hands from her face, allowing her to talk.

"You mean someone stole it already?" she asked quietly, she froze at that thought, her blood going cold because of the implications and meanings behind that.

"Aye." The man simply answered.

"But who could it be?" The bard asked, more to herself than anything, and quickly made a list of the suspects, although it was a rather short one and with one possibility scarier than the other.

 _It couldn't possibly be Xena, she just got here and as evil as she could be she was no thief_ , of that, the bard was sure and that left out only one possible name.

"Velasca…" she whispered to herself and almost forgetting she wasn't alone.

"you mean your lunatic friend has one of the most powerful object on the world? Oh-ho I'm sorry but I think I've hel…" He was already turning around when the Amazon Queen roughly stopped him and shoved him to the ground.

"You will listen and you will listen good, if someone, Velasca or not, has stolen the Chronos Stones then it means we are in big trouble, if Xena learns about this, she will not hesitate to bring her army here and raze us to the ground, which personally I wouldn't like too much. So, it is your job to get the Stone back or at least locate it and tell me where it is, you understand?" she asked, although there weren't many possible answers, and she had made it clear.

"Why me?" The King asked dejected.

"Because you are the King of Thieves and that's your job, besides, you wouldn't want to have someone out there who bested you at your own game now, am I right?" she asked, smiling at the man's reaction when his pride was nominated.

"You know, the funny thing is, I know you're playing me, but you're right." He admitted in defeat "All right, I'll try to find your damn stone, but you owe me big." He said, and made to leave, but was once again stopped by the girl.

"Oh and Autolycus, I'd be really grate if you'd give the eagle back to the Romans, as there's my face at stake and I wouldn't like a war with the romans either, especially now, ok?" she asked nicely, but the strength behind her words left no room for any different interpretation and so, the thief had to give up on this one as well.

"All right I'll do as you say, but this is the last time!" He said, and after that was gone in the forest. Gabrielle stared at him for a while until he was out of sight and made her way back to the village although she had a surprise waiting there for her, as she was looking at the ground, immersed in her thoughts when re-entering the village, she raised her head when she felt someone's sight on her, and with immense horror and fear found herself staring at the dark haired warrior. She cursed her distractions for she had run straight into the Warrior Princess herself who apparently had been looking at her for some time.

She approached the taller woman hesitantly, trying to keep at the bay her doubts. _Did she see Autolycus? Has she heard our conversations? What should I do? Oh Gods oh Gods oh Gods…_

When she was a few paces away the warrior woman slyly grinned at her before giving a quick bow and walking away, leaving a speechless bard alone with her doubts.

She suddenly felt tired with all her thoughts crowding her mind, and decided to head back to her hut to get some rest before the feast. She walked as fast as she could, hoping no one would come and stop her to ask questions, although it was part of her duty, and went straight to her hut, catching a breath of relieve when she finally crossed the threshold of her shelter undisturbed. She entered the small yet tidy structure and quickly tossed away her annoying ceremonial dress, opting for something more comfortable to wear for the time being; she looked around and went for the simple wardrobe placed in the corner, crudely carved from a piece of wood, and smiled when the memory of Xena's words came to her mind, about the Amazons being naïve.

 _Well you are not that wrong after all, it's not like we live with the comfort and wealth of powerful Kings, we are one with nature, and surely, it's not a place for bards or Philosophers._

She laughed at the irony, but went on and retrieved her familiar dress, that although it had to be patched here and there, was still her favorite. She looked down at her leg and found a blur of dark colors scattered around the wound, she hastily covered it, as she wasn't courageous enough to look at it, and simply preferred to pretend it didn't exist rather than live with it.

After some struggling she finally managed to fit into her old dress and laid on the bed, rethinking about the previous encounter and tried to relax for a bit. She briefly wondered when the Amazons would notice that the Chronos Stone was missing, it's not like they checked it every day, as it was only from the recent time that it has become a factor of interest for the outside world. She thought about Draco's words about the Stone but wondered nonetheless on whatever it could be this helpful to Xena, not that it will change anything she still planned to keep the precious relic out of Xena's hands, but not knowing whose hands was in it now was unsettling her to say the least, especially considering the main suspect to be Velasca, although she couldn't figure out why such action. Was this a desperate act to damage her?

 _Surely Xena would be mad at this, after all, if there was no way out of this, I could have just handed her the stone to avoid a war, but now I don't have this opportunity anymore. Oh Auto please don't disappoint me._

She briefly thought about the thief some more before the fatigue of the day caught up to her.

She woke up a couple of hours later with someone insistently knocking at her door, shouting for her name. She shot up, not really realizing she had fallen asleep and quickly tried to shake away the fog from her mind, before realizing someone was waiting for her outside. She stood up, almost cursing when her leg reminded her that abrupt movements weren't a bright idea.

She made her way to the door to find an exasperated Ephiny glaring coldly at her when she opened the door.

"My Queen, we've been…" she stopped talking to take a better look at the bard before her, astonished by her conditions and the not so smart expression wafted on her face.

"Where you sleeping back there?" she asked incredulous. It took a bard a few moments to recompose herself to look at least half presentable and tried to think of an excuse, but Ephiny was faster than her, not that it would take too much for that, given Gabrielle's conditions.

"Look Gabrielle." she started scolding her queen "The feast will begin in just a few minutes, everything is ready and we're waiting for you."

"Why didn't you wak…I mean, Why haven't you informed me earlier?" she asked, slightly mad at her regent.

"You'd think you'd know things like that by now." Ephiny kept scolding the poor woman, adding a bit of sarcasm.

"yes but…look, never mind. I'll be ready in a moment, ok? I'll see you there." she cut short and after a quick bow her regent was gone, leaving the bard on her doorstep. She quickly focused back, still having to deal with the effects of her nap and hurried inside to get ready.

 _Welp, there goes all the planning I was supposed to do for the feast, Gods let's hope is not as bad as this morning._

After a few minutes, she hurried outside, quickly reaching the center of the village, where, given the cloudless evening, the Amazons took advantage of the warm weather to set up the ground for the feast, taking all available chairs and tables outside. She made her way to her place at the head of the table, and discovered with horror that right next to it, on the right, was comfortably sitting the Warrior Princess, randomly talking with a couple of Amazons. She must have sensed her arrival for she suddenly stopped talking and raised her head straight towards her, locking her piercing blue eyes with the bard's. Xena didn't stop looking at her, but with the right hand she slowly raised her chalice, as a toss for the young Amazon Queen. A sly smile on her face.

 _Oh Gods this is going to be fun…_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Everyone present at the banquet stood up in silence as the Queen arrived, watching her, waiting for her. She nervously walked towards her Amazon sisters and took her place at the head of the table.

Gabrielle's gaze crossed Ephiny's, who immediately provided an encouraging smile to the young Queen. _This can't be so bad_ , she briefly thought as she proceeded to sit. Failing to notice as all the other guests followed her example; taking their places at the table. She raised her sight from the plate full of goods, to the companions near her, who were devouring their meals as if they hadn't seen food for the last three days or something, but she smiled at them nonetheless. Gabrielle's smile faltered when she saw the reason of all their recent troubles. Apparently the Warrior Princess wasn't hungry either, for she was, just like the bard, was focusing on something else other than the food. Although unlike the bard's, the Warrior Princess's focus was just on one particular woman.

"Don't you like the food?" The Queen asked, trying to break the ice.

"I'm not really hungry" Was the cold answer from the other woman. Who maintained eye contact with the bard. Her piercing blue eyes studying Gabrielle's every detail.

Gabrielle looked down for a moment. Unsure as to how to get out of such awkward situation. She hoped for the feast to already be over, but knew there still was a long way to go and surely, she wasn't starting it on the right foot. Not that it should be me to blame.

"Something's bothering you, Queen Gabrielle?" The voice brought her out of her daze. Although the sarcastic tone and the fact that the voice belonged to Xena did nothing to improve her mood. She thought for a moment about making some cunning reply but when she couldn't come up with anything she just muttered a "I'm fine" under her breath, that was barely distinguishable.

"Not in your usual chatty mood?" The Warrior teased the bard. Raising a few surprised glares from the people near her; even a couple of hateful ones. At that the bard took the bait and jumped at her.

"No, not really, and you should do well to watch your tongue next time."

The warrior princess simply raised her hands in defeat.

"Just asking." she said rolling her shoulders; pretending to focus on her food. Leaving that part of the table in an awkward silence for the next few minutes. At least until the main dish's arrival.

It was towards the end of the banquet when the Queen spoke again.

"So…you gonna eat that or what?" she asked the Warrior leaving Xena astonished by the question.

"What?" Xena answered truly confused. Her eyes were almost out of the orbs such was her stupor. She wasn't sure if the bard was simply making fun of her or was actually being serious. She stared at her almost full plate and then at Gabrielle's. _By the Gods she eats more than an army combined…how does… I mean, where in the world does she..._

"So?" The bard pressed again, impatient as always, tasting in anticipation the untouched pork jaw on the Warrior's plate. This time Xena smiled at Gabrielle's genuine expression and surrendered the dish to the Bard. Their eyes locked for a moment and The Warrior Princess had to look away quickly, cursing herself, for showing a caring expression towards the blonde girl in public, even if only for a moment. Perhaps revealing a bit too much to the bard. Yes, because the green eyed girl still had her effect on the dark Warrior Princess, although she had been trying to hide it, because it was considered a weakness by Xena, and probably a curse as well.

 _Gods she is beautiful_. She thought, watching the short girl devouring her new portion of food, before shaking the thought away; enraged by her own stupidity. _What's happening to me? I look like some pathetic teenager in…well I don't even dare to say such stupid word as love…after all, wasn't that cursed thing that brought us all here?_ No, she had to be ruthless, emotionless, if she wanted to pull through this successfully. She tried the way of peace, but that didn't work so well in the end. Her own son, paying the price for her mistake. She had promised to free Greece from the plague of Warlords and criminals, and war and suffering, all in her own way, no matter the costs.

She knew Gabrielle was a lost cause; she had lost her the moment she choose this road. Despite this, she hoped, in the darkest recess of her mind, to still have a chance with the girl, that maybe it wasn't over yet, she allowed herself to dream a bit, but the reality of the situation managed to pull through her dreams and brought her back to the table with the Amazons.

If Xena was having trouble dealing with the bard so was the short girl in dealing with the Warrior Princess. In fact, hadn't Xena been so focused on her own thoughts she would have seen green eyes reaching out for her, along with an encouraging smile. Gabrielle hadn't given up on her, it wasn't in her nature to give up on people and turning her back, if anything she was too stubborn to do so. She cared for Xena as she cared for every other Amazon present, which was her best quality as the Queen.

 _I wonder if I can still talk Xena out of this madness? There must be something I can do, I know it in my heart. I can still reach out to her._ That was a reoccurring thought in the bard's mind. She considered it once again; only this time looking directly at the subject of her thought. Xena was there, same as always, not a bit different from the painful last time she saw her, _beautiful as always_. She knew there was a coldness around her that wasn't there before, but at the same time Gabrielle was confident that beneath her facade it was nothing but the same old Xena. It was simply hidden for the moment. Realizing the banquet was now over she approached the Warrior next to her, attempting some small talk.

"Did you enjoy the feast?" She asked, but faced a blank expression and cold blue eyes.

" 'was all right." Xena cut short, avoiding any hint for a conversation, but the bard wouldn't give up.

"That's all you can do?" She tried again, smiling.

"I don't care about the food, I don't care about the Amazons, surely I couldn't care less of this feast for all that matter." The Warrior suddenly snapped, "all I want is that stone and I won't go away until it's mine. Think about it, I will have it one way or another." She claimed as she got closer to the Queen. Prompting a few worried glares from the nearby Amazons, all of whom were ready to defend their Queen to the death if needed.

"It's up to you to decide what is best for your people." Xena quietly whispered as she hastily left the table.

A profound silence followed it. None of the Amazons dared to voice their thoughts or even tried to speak; only silence. The Queen stood up and decided she had enough, the banquet was over. The hour was late and she had no desire to spend the rest of the evening talking about Xena with Ephiny, or anyone else, so she followed the example of the Warrior Princess and left the feast as well; heading to her quarters, tired of it all.

"I'm sure it will get better tomorrow" Gabrielle said hopefully, before she left, not really believing at her own words. Forcing herself to be an optimist; she had to see the bright side of anything. That was one of her greatest qualities after all, to see hope where other people would refuse to see it, to still think the day to come will be better. She couldn't afford to think negatively and so, after dismissing herself from the banquet, she headed to her quarters to get some rest and be ready for the following day.

She entered silently the empty room and made her way to the bed tossing herself over it with nonchalance. The wooden base of the bed screamed in protest because of the sudden weight on it.

 _Didn't think I was that fat_ , she light heartedly thought, when she heard the creaking sound of her bed. She laid on it for a bit; thinking about the banquet and the responsibility she had for her people. She briefly wondered if it wasn't just better to give Xena what she wanted, pretending the rest of the world didn't matter for the sake of her tribe. However, she soon found herself smiling at that, for all the good or bad that would do, she didn't have the Chronos Stone in her hands at this very moment so even if she decided to agree to Xena's request she still wouldn't be able to fulfill it.

The short bard made herself more comfortable on the bed, shifting a couple of time to find the perfect position before resuming her thinking although it didn't come as easy as before. She found instead her thoughts drifting away in her mind, quickly taking the shape of dreams.

She woke up to a thud, in what she assumed to be a couple of candlemarks later. The remaining light she had seen when she felt asleep was long gone now, and she found herself in a deep darkness. She cursed herself for this time, with all her thinking and in her tiredness she forgotten to set up some candles for the night to come. She made her way, groping around in her room until a gust of wind stopped her in her tracks. _I don't remember leaving a windows open_. She kept up her blind search for a means of light until she reached the small table in the center of the room where she found the candles and the linchpin. Luckily for her she wasn't exactly in a castle, in fact her room, despite being the one of a Queen, was quite modest. A wooden table with a couple of chairs, the bed and a guard robe was essentially all the furniture she had at disposal, which helped shorten her searching.

After a moment of reaching around her hand finally reached one of the candles laid out on the table. She managed to light it with the linchpin after a couple of tries. Taking a couple of seconds away she simply looked at the newborn fire she created, enveloping the thin twine wire and radiating a comfortable heat, while more importantly, providing the bit of light she needed to walk safely across the room. She turned around and almost let the newly lit candle fall to the ground such was the shock to see there, half hidden in the shadow, the shape of the warrior princess herself.

"Centaur Crap!" She screamed, it was the first thing that came to her mind. It wasn't exactly the most elegant thought, but in that very moment she truly didn't expect to face Xena.

The dark warrior raised an eyebrow in surprise but soon turned it into a cold expression as she raised from her sitting position in the corner of the room to stand up in the light of the fire in front of the bard.

"Surprised to see me?" She asked, smiling coldly at the bard, who tried to appear calm and composed. Although Xena knew that, deep down the poor girl was frightened, she could almost always smell the fear of her prey. She smiled again at that, pressing her advantage on the bard as she moved closer to her target.

"I guess you can say I'm…" Gabrielle stuttered while taking a step backward.

"I mean…" She continued, "I'm not really used to meet people here, in my room… at this hour." She kept talking, while throwing in a nervous smile between the words.

"So you can say I'm surprised to see you –" The bard would have kept talking if it wasn't for Xena springing into action, almost jumping over the blonde girl, successfully trapping her. The bard tried to take a step back, but when she felt the cold fabric of the wall behind her, she almost stopped breathing. They were so close, Gabrielle could almost feel Xena's breath; there, between the wall and the warrior princess she stood still, eyes closed, waiting for Xena's move. When nothing happened, she dared to slightly open one eye to see a couple of intense blue eyes staring at her.

"Why have you come here?" she whispered. The tall woman kept looking at her, but after a second she broke her hold and gave some room to the blonde girl. Xena took another step back and started to look around, at Gabrielle's quarters.

"Quite the simple place you got here, it looks cozy nonetheless." She said simply, giving the impression to be immersed in her thoughts and not really here, but right one moment after and she was back, staring at the bard once again.

"I'll make it simple, I understand we have different views about what's best for our people, you follow the way of peace. I understand that." She paused before continuing, "Unfortunately not everyone is so admirable, so candid." she added, with a hint of poison in her words.

"I've lost too much doing things your way, it's time for a change. Greece has been infected and it's dying as we speak, there's poison in her blood, warlords, governors, kings, they all are suffocating our lands bit by bit. If you want to live here, in the shadows, hidden from the world, fine. It's not my problem, I don't care." She unsheathed her sword with nonchalance before continuing. "Last time you stood against me it didn't end well, the gods had chosen to spare your life for some reason; I know it won't happen again." It was a threat, no room for any other interpretation.

The bard took her chance and stepped forward, her voice calm and steady.

"Xena…what you're talking about is madness, you can't do this, you can't be serious. Just think about it, will you? Please?" She almost begged in a whisper, her hands reaching forward to the Warrior Princess.

"You will always have a price to pay Xena, you say you want peace, yet you are preparing for war. You say you want to end the cycle of violence and abuses of kings and warlords, yet you are becoming the worst of them all, is this worth it?" she asked, leaving silence to fill the room once again.

"It's a price I'm ready to pay." was the answer that came after a beat from the dark haired woman.

"But I'm not."

"Xena…" the bard tried to reach for the Warrior's good side once again, but only freed the rage boiling up inside her.

"Enough!" Xena screamed, looking around for anything, any object on which she could release her rage on, but she managed to calm down without. "Enough!" she repeated more forcefully this time, although with a lower tone.

"You know why I'm here." she suddenly said, looking into green eyes, the same green that colored the object she desired most in this very moment, although for a beat she doubted which green one was the one she desired most.

"You want your stupid stone!" Gabrielle spat out "You'll be happy to know that I don't actually have it. Truth to be told the stone is gone." Gabrielle said simply, enraging the warrior princess, who immediately brought her sword to Gabrielle's neck, before she connected the dots.

"Autolycus has it, that little rat has stolen it hasn't he? He's helping you." she said vengefully, imagining her moment of revenge on the thief

"He's got nothing to do with it!" Gabrielle shouted in panic; afraid for her friend's life.

"Then who has it!" Xena yelled, almost cutting through the skin of the bard. The bard's vision went white as excruciating pain went soaring through her body, taking her breath away. She had to focus to hear Xena's words above her pain in order to try and answer her question.

"I don't know." Gabrielle answered, almost sobbing. She had a few seconds to live. She realized that now, and decided to make the most out of it. She tried to raise herself up from where she had fallen on her knees and reached for the Warrior Princess; looking straight into her cold blue eyes until her vision started to fade into nothingness once again. At that very moment air filled her lungs once again and she started to breath normally again.

She fell to the ground, because she felt weak all of a sudden, but she found the strength to look Xena in the eyes again.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have.." Xena started to apologize; for the first time she seemed confused and unfocused. She quickly shook her concern and confusion away.

"Gabrielle stay out of this, don't try to stop me, don't fight me; the gods know why they spared you once, don't test them. Don't test me." she said as she started to walk away when the bard grabbed her arm.

"I will always fight for what's right, no matter the cost. I'll be there and if I can I will stop this madness of yours in any way I possibly can." Gabrielle said, before letting the tall woman go.

"You can build a throne with swords, but you can't sit long on it!" She called after the Warrior Princess as she walked out of the room.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN:** ok guys I know It's been forever but I'm finally back, as during this summer I really didn't find much time for the story and I'm really sorry for that! Anyway, now I'm back and consider this short chapter a preview for the ones to come, as we are now reaching the highest point of the story. Again I felt bad for this massive delay the last few months but now I'm planning to give continuity to the story. So, as always, I so hope you'll enjoy and let me know what you think, as you guys are the best feedback I can ask.

Chapter 15

 _Oh yeah, it's easy for them, just a couple of punches, a couple of kicks and they'll save the day in a beat! Well apparently not every person in this gods forsaken planet has that kind of skills. We, normal people, usually don't have to fight off armies, face Gods or do other petty stuff like saving the world. We usually mind our own business, well actually I do mind other people business but that's because is part of my job. Oh That's right Auto! I'm a thief, I steal things, not searching, stealing! But Gabrielle, ohh Gabrielle is so stubborn sometime…_

He kept mumbling to himself for a good part of the day, until tiredness eventually found him and the King of Thieves decided to save same energy for the days to come. In fact, as he made camp for the night, he was starting to realize how risky his job was. Autolycus had the unforgiven task to get back the Chronos Stone, and while on paper it could seem an easy duty considering his line of work, it had some small details in it that made it awfully dangerous, one of them being the fact that the stone was likely in the hands of a former Amazon Queen who had gone insane. That alone, surely didn't help is mood.

He unpacked his belongings and tried to recall the events of the day, trying hard to think of something he might have missed during his long search. He had been in any tavern or inn along the road that he could find, but couldn't find anything. He questioned dozens of peasants and farmers but came out with nothing useful, he was starting to lose hope and give up, but decided against it once again. It seemed unlikely now for him to find anything, as probably was Velasca the one who got it, she could be somewhere well hidden in the forest relying on her skills to survive out in the open, planning for the Gods knows what.

He was about to fall asleep when the atrocious, most feared sound reached his hears. He quickly got up and rushed behind the nearest tree such was the fear, but unfortunately, not even his reflexes and quick thinking where able to save him for the disgrace that had reached his camp, as he had been spotted.

"Hey Autolycus!" A voice screamed from behind the King of Thieves, high and loud, he refused to turn until the very last moment, as he recognized the owner of the voice. Disappointed he slowly turned to face the human disgrace that was now approaching him

"Hey Joxer". He said with no empathy in his voice, resigned by the unexpected turn of events. "what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same!" He immediately answered, trying to sound smart "I bet you are in some kind of mission! I am doing one myself! Perhaps we could join forces and do it together!" he started to plan excited, already three steps ahead in his plans than the grumpy King of Thieves.

"Yes…that sounds good" Autolycus tried to agree, not really willing to start a discussion and without the strength needed to find a way out of this one, instead he agreed, for he simply wanted to go back to sleep.

Already an excited Joxer was exposing to him all his battle planes, but of all that talking, something close to nothing reached the Thief's mind, as he had worries of his own distracting him from the chatty fella. Only after a while he had the good heart to stop Joxer from his inconsistent rumbling.

"You know it's funny, you are not the only familiar face I saw today." He restarted again "it wasn't even one I was expecting to see!"

"Was it by any chance the one of an Amazon?" Autolycus asked annoyed.  
"No..?"

"Good! then I'm going back to sleep, good night!" Cut short the King of Thieves, ignoring the offended glare from Joxer, who tried to hold a grudge but quickly got bored of it as well, as Autolycus wasn't' giving any sort of response, rather, he started to snore after a few minutes, leaving an annoyed Joxer to look over the camp for the night.

The waking up wasn't the best one either as the first thing Autolycus felt was the cold feeling of iron pressed against his throat. Nothing new for the King of Thieves, but even he had to admit that waking up with a dagger against his neck was a new feeling, that quickly got worse as he realized who was the one holding that dagger.

"You've been following me since I left the village" The former Amazon Queen stated with hate, sinking the blade into the soft skin of the neck, causing the first drops of blood to stain the shiny metal

"You either are suicidal or a complete moron" She said, looking at a tied up Joxer while speaking the second part of her sentence. There Autolycus was reminded that he wasn't alone, as Joxer had spent the night with him and perhaps he was hurt, but then, he discovered himself happy to see him alive and well, although probably not for long. A destiny they were sharing he thought, as he cursed this expedition once more.

"Why?" Her question brought him out of his thoughts and as he briefly considered to lie at the amazon, he decided against it, as he valued his life more than a stone, his brain running a hundred miles per hour, fed by fear and adrenaline.

"I can explain" he tried to say, struggling against the restrain of the strong woman, who ever so slightly released a bit of pressure, allowing him to talk.

"We're here for the Chronos stone" he admitted, ignoring the surprised look on Joxer's face.

"Then you should go back to your little village of Amazons! I don't care of your stupid stone." Was the angry answer to his revelation, which did confuse him, sure as he was that the thief was standing before him, or well, above him.

"you didn't steal it?" He blurted out before he could stop himself, but watched horrified the amazon connect all the dots in her mind.

"So… someone stole the Chronos Stone" she evilly smiled and then looked down into the thief's eyes

"Thank you" she simply said, foretasting the moment when blood will soak the ground again. As she finished talking she rejoiced in the smell of her prey's fear, the knowing of what's to come, ignoring the plea in the thief's eyes and the muffled scream of his stupid companion she pressed the dagger more and more, every time causing more blood to escape from the body until a piercing cry of pain exploded in the air.

Confused, She looked down and saw her hands covered in warm blood, between them the tip of a roman blade was sticking out of her stomach. She barely had time to turn and see the man who stabbed her in the back before falling to her death on the hard ground, her madness dying with her.


	16. Chapter 16

The next day she was gone. The Warrior Princess had left Gabrielle once again without saying a word; leaving behind more questions than answers. Somehow knowing Xena wasn't around removed in Gabrielle a weight that the Bard didn't know had been carrying for the last few days; until the idea of Xena going herself after the Stone crossed her mind. She shivered at it, but realized there wasn't much she could do now, because when the Warrior Princess set her mind to something, nothing could stop her from achieving it. Gabrielle could only get ready for the future. She saw darker days yet to come over the Amazon lands. She ordered double the sentries around the border of her territory and initiated a series of drills for a better response in case of an invasion. In battle, time was everything, and apparently she was running short of it. The Amazon Queen had no idea what the Warrior Princess plan's for her and her tribe were. She had to be prepared for anything.

The next couple of days were among the longest of her life; every hour felt like a lifetime to the Bard. The uncertainty of her future was driving her crazy. All she knew was that her duty lay here; among her people. She would give her live to save each and every one of them without a shadow of a doubt, but often her thoughts went to Autolycus, and more than once she barely stopped herself from leaving the village to go after him as well. Many times Ephiny had to remind her of her duty; successfully keeping the Queen among her tribe. Although Gabrielle's strong will and stubbornness were pushing for action. The idea of standing idle, waiting for someone else to move was unnerving and new to the young bard; she was full of energy and ready for action.

* * *

During her ride back to the army camp the Warrior Princess had only one thought in her mind, Gabrielle. She cursed the bard and she cursed herself, for she still had a strong affection for that one irritating blonde, and as powerful as she was, she couldn't obtain what she wanted nonetheless. A situation she wasn't really accustomed to. Gabrielle was the only person in this world who could stand toe to toe with Xena and live to tell the story. She hated herself for it, as it was her greatest weakness she had, and it would surely come back to bite her in the future. No, she told herself, she had to be prepared, she had to be smart. Her rage grew when she spurred her horse forward, breaking into a full gallop, to dissipate her anger; replacing it with the adrenaline of the wind flowing through her hair.

Before Xena could realize it, her horse had reached the entrance of the camp and she quickly passed by the two sentinels at the edge of the site, who bowed in respect to her; moving aside for her to pass through. She went straight for her tent, not really bothering to listen to her commanders as they tried to intercept her, to discuss matter she had no care for at this very moment. She opened her tent door and moved inside, dispelling the last of the men on her heels.

As soon as she entered her tent, she had all her senses on high alert. Xena felt another presence with her. She quickly scanned the seemingly empty tent, briefly wondering if it could be one of her men daring enter here, but when she finished her inspection she realized it was no man, the presence she felt. Immediately her expression turned from a focused one to an annoyed one, as the one she suspected to be in here was indeed worse than a thousand men.

"Ares." She whispered, and, as the name was spoken he appeared in the middle of the tent, pretending to just casually have gotten there.

"Xena!" He said, as he almost looked surprised by the presence of the Warrior Princess, here, in her tent.

"Knock it off Ares, what do you want?" Xena asked, annoyed, as she saw perfectly through this facade of the God of War. From the moment he appeared she felt unsettled, as if a disease was keeping company to her.

"Ouch!" He said dramatically, pretending to be hurt, in his usual fashion. "I was just checking how this army of mine was doing, and the commander, I see…" He stopped, to look straight into blue eyes, which held his gaze.

"Well?" The Warrior Princess asked. Unnerved by this interruption, as the God of War seemed to have lost the line simply by looking at her.

"Well…?" He repeated, laughing "It's been quite some time since you moved the army, you're men are starting to get bored, and when they do they get unpredictable." He said, nearing the warrior woman.

"Perhaps is better if you keep your men occupied."

"I had important matters to do first." Xena tried to explain, as she was getting nervous from the proximity of the god.

"Ah, important matters, little blondie still has some power over you, is that it?" He smirked, while turning around the woman like a predator.

"What…no!" Xena yelled in surprised, as her anger rapidly increased.

"What was her name…" Ares stopped to think about it, then with a smile he moved close to Xena's lips, before changing target at the last second.

"Gabrielle, was it?" The name whispered in her ear sent a shiver down her all body. She pushed the god away and took a few step back.

"She has nothing to do with it, it wasn't her I was looking for." She said, trying to close the conversation; it was taking a turn she didn't like, but Ares simply smiled at her revelation.

"You don't need any godly item to legitimatize your reign." He revealed with a grin.

"No need for a Stone when all you need is already right here." He said, as Xena tried to hide her surprise. She never told Ares about the Stone, nor had she planned to. The God of War knowing about it wasn't reassuring, but she'll have to deal with it, she told herself. She quickly regained focus and moved forward.

"What is it that you want?" She asked, plain and simple. The God of War didn't need time to find an answer to that, for he had a very precise plan in mind.

"You" he simply stated "On the throne of Greece." He let a moment of silence to fill the room before continuing, as he got the full attention from the Warrior Princess.

"Power is for the strong to take, for far too long you've denied your destiny, rejected it, pushed it back and lived in the darkness. Now it's time for you to take destiny in your hands and shape the world to your will. You have an army, that's all you need." As he said the last words he faded away like winds across trees, leaving Xena alone, to think about his words. She stood there for just a moment before going outside to fetch the first soldier she came by.

"You! Gather all my commanders, tell them to meet me immediately." She yelled, and before she could even hear his answer she was back in her quarters, battle plans forming in her mind.

* * *

A whole week went by without any news of the Warrior Princess or the King of Thieves, and Gabrielle found herself once again in a fight with her best advisor, as her need to take action was once again interfering with her duty as queen.

It was barely past sunrise, as she was getting ready for dinner, that the news came, in the words of a young Amazon, that the King of Thiefs was back in the village, and he wasn't alone.

She rushed outside of her hut heading straight for the council room where she'd been informed that the men were taken. Not really paying attention to whatever else the young woman, hot on her heels, was trying to say. Gabrielle almost knocked the door open when she arrived at the building and hurried inside. There, she spotted The King of Thieves surrounded by a number of very familiar faces to her.

She closed the gap between her and the waiting party, until she was toe to toe with Autolycus; which she could see, was unnerving him.

"What is going on here?" She asked with all the authority she could muster, at first glaring at the thief, and then she starred at the men standing by his side sympathetically, her temperament immediately softening from the earlier frown.

"Was he giving you trouble again?" She asked, almost a bit saddened, to the two roman soldiers before her. Apparently, for some reason ,the King of Thieves was, once again in the company of Cato and Macro, who must have found him again.

The bulky man laughed while the thinner one, Cato, answered "Not at all! In fact he's been quite cooperative with us, as he retrieved our stolen artifact" he smiled genuinely "but that's not the reason we're here" He continued, after a short pause "I bring news of your old friend, Xena."

As the name was pronounced, Gabrielle was hit by a wave of panic, for she could see the trouble coming in the words spoken by the man in front of her. Trying to hide her worries, she nodded her head, to prompt Cato to go on. Instead, Macro continued the story.

"She's becoming a threat to many now, she's gathered her army, and is currently marching south. She only has one purpose." He looked at Gabrielle's green eyes, before saying the next words,

"To bring War."

Gabrielle was recalling the last time she was in the middle of a war, when she saw, up close, the effect of one, when she was caught with Xena in the war between the Aetolian and the Macedonians. She almost paid the highest price because her kindness and good heart, but still, the war left many wounds behind and she dared not to consider the effect of another large scale war spreading across Greece, as the aftermath could be too devastating just to think about. Thousands of deaths, and the ones the battle won't kill, the scarceness of food the war will provide. Xena had to be stopped.

"She's heading south, her target one is," The roman announced, "Athens".

"If the city falls, there will be a divided Greece, hundreds of small feuds will spreads across the country and the population will pay the heaviest price." Cato added, a saddened look appearing on his face before he continued.

"Your friend isn't exactly a friend of Rome either, as she grows more powerful by the day, she is also picking up the attentions of the roman senate, a woman like her could very well be a treat to the republic. If she takes power in Athens she will have beneath her a fairly large part of Greece, then I cannot exclude a military strike from our side before she grows too powerful. That's one more war to add in the list." He said, before Macro stepped in.

"And this one won't be as pleasant as the other ones. We are talking about a divided nation against the Roman legions, it can't possibly end well for your people." He was too focused on his pride for the roman army to see the glare Cato was giving him.

"What you have to understand is that Rome has all the interest into keeping things the way they are now, as we've been at peace, and trading with Greece for many years now. A change In power will only be seen as a threat for us and thus we will work to neutralize it as soon as possible to maintain the current status quo." Cato tried to explain to the Queen.

Gabrielle pondered his words, and although she didn't fully believe the genuine interest of the Romans for a united Greece, she did realize that one more war was too much for an already weakened country. She was Queen of the Amazon and surely she had power, but not nearly enough to stop Xena, she thought. She won't bring war to her people, they've suffered already, but she couldn't allow the Warrior Princess to take power with the force either. Gabrielle had to act, she realized.

There was no way she could let herself watch the country she loved burn in the hands of a tyrant and a dictator, that simply isn't her. Gabrielle always felt to different from the rest, she realized that her end goal was to help the people, to change the world bit by bit, as stupid as it could sound, and lately she was failing short of that.

"No…" she whispered. "No." She repeated, more convinced.

"We will stop the Warrior Princess together, once and for all." She said loud and clear, for all to hear, her chin high, her determination re-found. From the moment the words left her mouth her mind was made.

"That's impossible, come on." was the sarcastic reply from the King of Thieves "We didn't even find the Chronos Stone, for all we now she has it already! How can we stop her, the all five of us?" He asked, although it didn't really leave much room for an answer "And the last time I checked she had an army at her back as well." he said, as he seemed to reconsider something for a moment.

"Sure, maybe with the help of the other Amazons we could do something, but we'd still be greatly outnumbered." Autolycus looked at the queen before him, and for a moment he was reminded of the little girl he once knew and realized how had Gabrielle changed since then.

"They'll stay here." Was the firm answer from the same woman she was looking at, a moment earlier "I can't ask anymore from them, it's just us." she said as she looked around the room, counting two Romans, Autolycus and herself. "Why did you said all five of us when we're just four here?" She asked, a bit curious.

"There's also Joxer with us. Well, he's not with us right now as he said he had to meet someone as soon as we got here but I thought to count him as well".

"Oh no…" Gabrielle whispered, worried about his friend.

"Yeah I said that too when..."

"No you don't understand, he…" Gabrielle interrupted the other man, trying to find the right words to express her fears when they found a way to present themselves in the form of the very man they were talking about, chained, and escorted into the room by two Amazons.

"My Queen, we found him molesting one of the amazon, shall we carve one of his eyes or go lower?" She asked, ignoring the look of fear and surprise in the prisoner's eyes.

"For the love of Zeus, just let him go, I'll take care of him." She exhorted, as she approached his friend, and helped him get rid of the chains, pretending to not hear the sound of disappointment coming from the thief for her poor choice. Gabrielle followed the two Amazons exiting the room before Joxer reminded her of his presence.

"Hey Gab!" The man almost screamed, as soon as he got free, and went for an awkward, and slightly too long, hug. He was then pushed away, because the bard was focusing back on the more important matters.

"We will help you stop Xena." Cato suddenly stated, as his friend simply stared at him, and took a step towards the Queen. "We will help you stop Xena to avoid war." He said, raising his hand for an handshake with the blonde girl.

"You don't have to do this." She stated, partially happy, and partially worried for the fate of her quest and of her friends.

"If a war will spread among our countries perhaps thousands will die, what's two more lives to it?" Macro joked, as he too stood up, with arms folded, enhancing his muscles, accepting his possible fate.

Gabrielle looked surprised and hopeful at the two men, and slowly raised her hand as well to meet Cato's in a firm handshake. She then looked straight at the thief, who was pretending to be elsewhere and not paying attention, but he felt the glare upon him, and so he inevitably raised his sight to meet the green eyes gazing at him. He tried to hide his embarrassment until inevitably he too had make a choice.

"All right fine!" He finally gave in to the piercing stare "I'll join the club." he decided.

"I still don't see how the five of us will be able to do anything, but hey!" He said sarcastically, but was met with a smile from the Amazon Queen.

"We're not alone, I sent words for Hercules to come as well." She smiled, as the expression changed in the man's face.

"You truly aren't the same girl I once met" He said, returning the smile.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN:** Thank you guys for sticking with me as we are approaching the final part of the story. I have many plans in my mind after the end of this story, as it will probably have a sequel as well. So again, thank you guys, as if it wasn't for you i wouldn't have done it! I've appreciated all the reviews, as in the end, it's only through them that i'm encouraged to provide the best story possible. So, if you'd like to bear with me some more just let me know! I have a Tumblr account if you have any questions or anything, it's alexander-eolo, and i can answer you there. But enough talking, here's the chapter, and i really hope you'll enjoy. Please leave a review, and i'm sorry for the late update, but i'm working hard to get everything right.

(Host = Army)

Chapter 17

The sound of battle drums filled the cold air of the morning as the sky was lighting up above the army marching towards its target, leaving behind a trail of dust and desolation. Before the men, riding alone on her horse, was the Warrior Princess herself, guiding her host through the lands of southern Greece. As she was there with an army behind and the glory in front, just waiting for her to reach it, she had a sudden rush of adrenaline. She needed this, she realized, the sound of drums, the dust, the smell of the men sweating under the weight of shield and swords, amours and helmets. The deafening sound caused by thousands of footsteps hitting the land below in sync, of the men she commanded marching, blindly, step after step, was music to her. This rush of power that she could almost touch, was something she always craved, and now, she could finally have it. She felt invincible, Xena felt like a Goddess, as she seemed unstoppable. She smiled at this sensation and kept moving forward to her destiny.

But with every passing hour her smile was fading bit by bit until only rancor and hate accompanied her. Rancor for trusting Gabrielle and hate for allowing the death of her son. She didn't forget her son, nor did she forgive the ones responsible for it. She marched forward in the pursuit of her dream of a unified Greece beneath one person, her. How many more sons would die because of wars and warlords, she was going to put an end to it, and to do so she needed power and the control of the land, many lives would be sacrificed during the process, she knew that, but it was a sacrifice she was ready to do, as the greater good, she could see it, was much greater than any army.

 _But it doesn't matter to you, does it, Gabrielle? No matter how much the greater good is big, I will always be evil in your eyes for trying to pursue it this way. Gods I wish you could see it the way I see it, with my own eyes. The Gods knows I tried your way Gab, but how did it end up? Only pain and suffering, I lost a son following your stupid ways of peace, I could have prevented it, if I had a real army back then there wouldn't have been people like him to stand against me. But no more, once I will have a unified Greece beneath me I will put an end to all warlords and thieves and killers or usurpers, all of them, no matter the costs, no one will stand against me. Not anymore._

A sudden screech took her out of her daze, she looked up, to see an eagle flying above her head. For some reasons that unsettled her, as after all, the eagle was the symbol chosen by the Roman folks. How conceited was it for them to compare themselves to such a majestic and elegant creature. It didn't matter, no one will ever stand against her, and once Greece falls under her command perhaps even those arrogant Romans will learn to fear her reign. She let her mind wonder on some possible paybacks to the man that caused her so much pain in the past before coming back to back to Earth, because one of her scouts was approaching.

* * *

Silence surrounded the two men upon the road, for both had their fair share of thoughts to deal with along the way. They caught up with each other earlier in the day as they reunited unexpectedly sooner than their original plan. Finally, the shorter man decided to break the silence between them. Silence wasn't comfortable to him as was for the other man.

"I know you Hercules, there something really big going on right now for you to suddenly interrupt your quest and rush to the other side of Greece, tell me" He stopped and raised his gaze to look the other man in the eye.

"Are the voices true? Has Xena gone back to her old self?" partner; who seemed to be thinking. It felt like he didn't really want to give a precise answer. Iolaus decided to press his questions further.

"I know there is something you are keeping from me Herc, come on, it can't possibly be this bad, what is going on?" The tall man refused to give an answer to that as well, only causing Iolaus to worry further.

"I've heard many stories about Xena lately, I did not want to believe them at first. I was so sure they were stories of her old past, I heard them stories many times before so I really didn't pay much attention to them, but then I started to hear more and more of them, and as much as I like to believe them to be fake I'm starting to believe those voices." Iolaus stated, with worry rising in his voice, because the big guy wasn't trying to stop and reassure him.

Finally, he spoke, "Iolaus look, I don't know what is going on, but my heart is telling me something is wrong" He looked down to the shorter man before trying to cheer him up.

"I understand you're worried for Xena and Gabrielle, but that's why we're here, we'll try to help, as we always do, ok?" He simply said, as his words already affected the other man, leaving in him a small smile of hope. But it wasn't meant to last, as he quickly stated his new doubts

"And what about the voices of an army?" He said, causing a short laugh to escape the from the bulkier man

"then we will have a lot of workout to do!" he laughed as he reassured his companion once again, so sure as he was, of himself. Unfortunately to him his good mood wasn't shared by the shorter man, who kept his remaining doubts to himself.

Iolaus tried to remain quiet for a while, but only managed around forty seconds of silence before voicing his thoughts once again. He was just about to say something once again when a distant cussing of a man reached his ears. He silenced himself as the colorful words peeked his interest and apparently the big guy's as well, as he was looking for the source of that sound. They went off the road for a dozen paces before spotting a shadow hidden in a bush. They quietly got closer to the man as he was offering his back to them and from their point of view it looked like the reason of his earlier rage was something he was holding in front of him, although they didn't have a clear visual.

Hercules decided to step forward, not really feeling comfortable at sneaking on someone and stated his presence with a fake cough.

"Ahem, can I help y…" He stopped mid-sentence as the mysterious man in front of him was turning around revealing his face to the couple of guys. Immediately Hercules felt a sense of Deja-vu as he looked at the man's eyes, sure to have seen him already somewhere. To his concern the man's expression drastically changed from a surprised to a horrified one when he realized who the two newcomers were. He started to gather up his things frantically, muttering some indistinguishable words under his breath, only intriguing the big guy more. He tried to step forward, trying to calm the frightened guy when Iolaus decided to step in, pointing a finger at the man.

"I know you!" He exclaimed, stepping forward "You are Draco, aren't you? You were with Xena once!"

Iolaus was trying hard to recall more information about the man when he suddenly noticed something glinting in the man's hands.

"What is that?!" he asked, pointing at the item concealed by his hands. Instead of answering, the man rushed to the side of his camp and picked up the sword hidden behind his bag and pointed it at the shorter man.

"None of your damn business!" he spat at Iolaus, brandishing his sword.

Hercules decided to step in the middle of the two men, successfully cutting Iolaus off. He raised both his hands trying to calm the other man when he launched forward slashing at the big guy. Luckily, despite his bulkiness, he managed to jump back, narrowly missing the tip of the blade which only encountered air in its way, and a small piece of cloth. After Draco was launched forward from his failed strike, he tried to regain his balance, but in a blur, he saw the other man's arm moving in the air and realized too late the final destination as in a heartbeat he felt an immense pain for an instant, when the knuckles met his face, and after that only the darkness that was clouding his mind before he lost his senses.

The man fell hard on the ground, unconscious, letting out of his hand the item he was hiding earlier, a green stone which escaped his hands, rolling on the grass beneath.

Iolaus and Hercules exchanged a brief glance with each other before collecting the stone.

* * *

"Absolutely not! You are not leaving us again!" Ephiny was screaming against Gabrielle as she was packing her bag with clothes and food for her quest. She did her best to convince their Queen to stay among her people, but Gabrielle's stubbornness and her desire to act had taken over any common sense in her. And so there Ephiny was, almost screaming at the top of her lungs, trying to inject some sense in the Queen's head.

Ephiny could see her words passing by the Queen with none of them being listened to, Ephiny thought about restraining Gabrielle for a couple of times, but really didn't see an advantage in the long term. Reasoning with her was quite the question itself, and surely, she wasn't succeeding in it. Gabrielle had decided to merely ignore her while preparing for the trip. Ephiny was almost going to punch some sense into her Queen, when a knock on the door distracted her from her fit of rage. She went on to open the door only to be run over by a young Amazon who entered the hut without permission and went straight to the Queen, completely ignoring Ephiny, who had to show some serious self-control to not murder the young woman. And the Queen too, while she was at it.

"My Queen Hercules has arrived" the young woman said, causing Gabrielle to stop her packing.

"When? Where is he?" Gabrielle asked, reaching the Amazon, and started shaking her shoulders while asking the questions.

"he's here just…" as she was speaking, Gabrielle was distracted by something above the woman's shoulder, she suddenly walked past by the woman, still speaking, and rushed outside. She saw the man they were talking about just outside her hut. With a giant smile on his lips, she launched at him with a hug as his smile infected her as well.

"Hey!" the man shouted, as the blonde girl, barely half tall as him, almost made him fall. She then went to the other man, Iolaus, and shared a warm hug with him as well. For a brief moment the two established an eye connection but it was quickly broken.

"It's been so long, look at you!" Iolaus exclaimed as he looked carefully at the blonde girl before him, a hint of love briefly appearing in his eyes as he watched Gabrielle, "you look so different, you look…" he stopped to think about the right words but Hercules had found them on his behalf.

"Important"

That was the word that described better Gabrielle, but underneath all of that she was still the young girl from Potidaea, and she knew that well. The Queen simply smiled at their words and went on to discuss the situation.  
"Autolycus is here as well" she started, "and Joxer, and now that you both are here we could leave and maybe we could do something all together to stop Xena once and for all before it gets too late." her green eyes shown bright as they hadn't in days. she finally saw a chance to stop Xena and to end all of this madness. She saw hope, and now that they were all reunited she allowed herself to dream a bit over the future. She looked back at the two men before her, who simply by standing there gave her the strength she needed to act.

"Thank you so much for coming" she found herself saying as Hercules smiled at that while Iolaus simply waved it off.

"Gabrielle, I believe there's much to do before we go, perhaps is better if we talked inside first."

Gabrielle stepped aside, allowing the two men to enter inside, and after sending words for the other guys to reach her, she closed the door shut behind her. Leaving her alone with her two friends.

As soon as they entered her smile faded a bit as she saw the concerned expression on her companions faces.

"We've heard Xena's marching south with a host at her command, is that true, Gabrielle?" Hercules asked, starring at her in the eyes. The Queen let her sight wander around the room as to search an answer in the items and furniture neatly placed in the hut. She confirmed his friend's fears by simply nodding her head, which caused a sigh of disappointment from the big guy, while Iolaus stepped forward, with a hint of rage in his eyes and grabbed Gabrielle's arm.

"Gabrielle" He said softly, placing one hand below her chin and raised it slightly, to look into green eyes.

"What happened?" He asked. Gabrielle was about to answer when someone opened the entrance door and stepped inside. The Queen turned to see Autolycus and Joxer as they entered.

"We've heard the big guy was hear" yelled cheerfully the king of thieves, as he pointed to the bulky man "hello Hercules…" he said shortly after, a little less cheerfully, as he remembered all the time he ended up in trouble because of the very man before him. Behind him and Joxer two more man stepped into view. The bigger one immediately started to study Hercules and after a quick scanning seemed to be approving his counterpart. Macro went to his friend Cato and raised his arm around his neck and while talking to him pointed to the walking legend in front of them "See my friend? That's what the perfect soldier should look like!" He said gruffly, but with a smile on his face. Somehow Cato managed to free himself from Macro's grasp and went to the other big guy and shake his hand.

"So, you must be the legendary Hercules, I'm Cato and this is Macro." he made the presentation and watched as Hercules reached for the handshake.

"My pleasure, and this is Iolaus." he said, pointing at the man standing next to him, who immediately reached for Cato's arm as well.

"And I'm sorry to disappoint your friend there but I'm anything but a soldier." He laughed, as he too seemed to study the roman soldier.

"As long as you can properly fight!" Macro said, as a little part of himself wanted to provoke the big guy to see if he was as strong as people says. Gabrielle decided to stop this and stepped in the middle, taking the attention back where it was most important.

"ok, now that we're done with the presentations we've got a lot of things to discuss, what you've heard about Xena is true, she's got an army and is supported by the Macedonians as well. She's marching towards Athens as we speak, we know she has just left Larissa, she'll reach the city within a week."

"That's impossible, you're saying your friend just left Larissa, right? From there, with a whole army behind, it will take at least one fortnight to reach Athens, if not longer" Macro inferred.

"You don't know Xena, if she set her mind to something she will have it, nothing can stop her." Gabrielle explained.

"Then what's the point for us being here?" asked Autolycus, who, as soon as he saw an opportunity to get out of trouble tried to take it.

"Come on we gotta help Gabrielle, she can't do this alone" Intervened Joxer, trying to help the blond girl. Hercules decided to step in as well, immediately silencing any more protest from the King of Thieves.

"I've stopped Xena once, together we have a chance to do it again." he spoke, "I believe Gabrielle is right when she says we have a week, which means we are running out of time if we want to help Athens and avoid another massacre, we need to move now." He decided, as he was looking time at the bigger of the two Romans, the whole time. Who then raised his hands in the air in defeat.

"All right, let's do this." Autolycus finally agreed.

"Yeah let's go!" almost shouted Joxer, to which Autolycus sarcastically answered with "yeah" although he didn't sound convinced at all.

"So, what's the plan?" the King of Thieves asked with a slight hint of sass in his words.

Silence fell as the question was spoken.

"All right that's a start, so what are we waiting for?" The thief asked again, and this time he saw some sort of reactions.

"He's right, we should get ready, I'm sure we will come up with a plan later on, just take what you need."

"All right!" Cato stated, and started to move towards the door, followed by the Centurion.

"I'm gonna…I'm gonna get ready too" Joxer blurted out and made his way on the tail of the two Romans.

"Autolycus, I'm sure we will come up with something, don't worry, ok?" Gabrielle spoke softly and squeezed the thief's shoulders to infuse some courage, and after a nod he was gone too, leaving Gabrielle alone with Hercules and Iolaus once again.

"I'm sure everything will be all right Gab, we will get the old Xena back" Iolaus smiled, trying to cheer Gabrielle up, and took her hand.

"Don't give up on her yet." He whispered, before looking at the other person in the room.

"Well I guess we are already good to go." he smiled and then looked back to Gabrielle.

"I'm sorry I'm doing this to you, maybe we should wait a bit for you to rest, after all you just got here and there we are leaving already." Gabrielle apologized, but was quickly reassured by a warm smile.

"That's what we do, we are used to it, don't worry about us." Hercules smiled at the blonde girl standing there.

"We'll just wait outside." he said, and left the room, Iolaus with him. As he went out he saw the two Romans talking while heading down the road, towards one of the huts, but couldn't quite understand what they were bickering about. Their conversation picked his interest, so he started to causally walk in their direction, trying to pick up some pieces and bits of the discussion. As soon as he was within hear shot he motioned for Iolaus to keep it quiet.

"Cato, all I'm saying is, is this really worth it?" Macro seemed to be asking to his friend, probably a little bit worried for their imminent quest, Hercules figured.

"You know what's at stake, this is our best chance, besides, we still have time before the Legatus will send someone searching for us."

"We've got the eagle back, that was our job, we're done here, there's no point in dying in someone else's war." The bulky man argued, as they stopped walking in the muddy road.

"You need to trust me on this one Macro, we have a golden opportunity here, we would be fools not to take it." He tried to reason, and looked around himself suspiciously before continuing.

"Listen…" as he was about to go on he spotted the big guy getting closer and immediately stopped talking, then glared at his companion before walking towards the newcomer.

"You know this Xena, right?" Cato asked, changing the conversation. Hercules laughed nervously at the question but luckily Iolaus went in, to help and answered for him.

"If I had to describe Xena in one word I would say unstoppable." Iolaus joked, although nobody seemed to be laughing.

"We cannot stop a whole army, even for someone with your reputation." Cato stated seriously, and pointed at the two men before him.

"Aye we can't," Iolaus agreed, "but we can stop Xena nonetheless."

"It's not gonna be easy," Hercules added, "but if we want to avoid a bloodshed we must try."

The two Romans nodded at his words in silence. They separated from the two men and continued to walk towards their hut, silence accompanying their steps.

Shortly after a small group was gathering at the entrance of the Amazon village, six men and a woman. Gabrielle was the last one to arrive as she saw her fellowship divided in three smaller parties, one with the two romans, one with Hercules and Iolaus, and then a little bit further away was Autolycus, as he was doing his best to ignore Joxer, who seemed to have been talking with the King of Thieves for quite a while. As Gabrielle reached the group they all got closer and without further ado followed Gabrielle outside the village and on to their desperate quest to stop the Warrior Princess.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN:** We're almost at the end of the story! This chapter is going to be the prelude for the finale, as the next chapter will be the last, and it will be much longer than any other. After that there will be the epilogue, and then we will see what's to come, as I have plenty of ideas for the future! (A sequel is very likely to happen). Now, I hope you'll enjoy this one, and be prepared for what's to come!

Chapter 18

One hero and his companion, a thief, a moron and two roman soldiers, this was the weirdest group she ever had the honor to travel with _,_ Gabrielle thought, as she looked at the men surrounding the fire.

She smiled as she saw the way Macro, her bulky roman friend, was checking out his Greek counterpart. He had yet to decide, apparently, who would have the upper hand in a fight. She envied him in a way. As she watched, she realized he was happy, and that was something she couldn't wrap her mind around. There were seven of them against an army. Chances were, they would all be dead by the next day, yet there he was, wondering if he could beat Hercules in a fight. She must have been staring for too long, because the man caught her gaze and their eyes met for a moment. She quickly looked away, in all possible directions, but soon ran out of things to stare at, to pretend to be interested in. Instead she glared back at him, and found herself surprised when the man, still looking in her direction, gave her a supportive smile. Of course a moment later he was dumbly blinking at the girl, so she had to look away, partially embarrassed; although the smallest of smiles escaped her lips. She tried to remain serious but the thoughts of this man ridiculously blinking at her, trying to look sexy, was becoming funnier and funnier in her head, so she had to fight with herself to remain serious.

While Gabrielle was fighting her inner battle the rest of the group was finishing their lunch and chatting wholeheartedly between one another. It felt like a regular day for all of these men, but she knew what was coming and she couldn't block the fear in her heart. She remained quiet for the rest of the evening. Eventually sleep took over them, all but Gabrielle. They were a few hours away from Xena's camp and Athens, and by this time tomorrow everything would be over, one way or another.

Her line of thought was interrupted by a particularly loud snore from Joxer, she briefly considered kicking him, but decided against it. She had too much going on in her mind, with the Chronos stone gods knows where, and all the other things that could go wrong tomorrow, so she decided to get up and take a few steps into the woods, to be alone for a while.

She walked to a nearby tree and sat there, with her back against the smooth bark. Luckily the moon was providing enough light for her to see her surroundings. A couple of times she believed to have seen some sort of small animal moving around, but everything else was dead quiet.

So many things could go wrong, she hadn't even considered to make a list. Instead, her thoughts were lingering on the Warrior Princess. Part of her understood why she was doing this, this wasn't just the old Xena, she saw the reasons behind her acts, but she also saw all the collateral damages her actions were causing. Xena was going for Greece and its people, something snapped in her when her son died.

 _Then of course there's still that stupid stone, how was it stolen from under my nose! Why does Xena needs it. Where the hell is it, who took it. Why, how, wait I'm looking at this the wrong way. Ok, new question, who took it, and why. The gods knows where that stupid stone is!_ She almost screamed in her mind before calming down to think some more, but she was almost laughing in desperation before it clicked it.

 _The gods knows where is it._

She almost jumped to her feet as an idea flashed in her mind. She could ask Aphrodite to help her find it, maybe the Goddess wasn't so useless after all, and perhaps Aphrodite knew something about it. Suddenly excited, Gabrielle tried to focus her mind on the Goddess and spoke her name, but no one came.

She stood alone in the trees, all the excitement she had earlier vanished in the cold of night.

Gabrielle jumped as she heard a noise behind her, for a moment she hoped it was Aphrodite, but as the feeble light of the moon unveiled the figure walking towards her. She realized it was not the Goddess that had scared her, but in fact it was her brother, Hercules.

He smiled at the girl once he reached her, and then looked up at the starry sky. It was a beautiful night. He didn't speak, he didn't talk, he just stood there with Gabrielle, and she realized she was glad for it. There was no need for words in that precise moment, each knew already what the other was thinking, each knew their fears and hopes. Or at least Gabrielle thought so. She looked at this man and realized he was giving her strength, just by his sheer presence. He was giving her hope. She thought about it for a while and realized that it wasn't Hercules itself that was giving her strength, it wasn't his inhuman force, or overconfidence. In fact, Gabrielle discovered that night that it was their friendship the source of that unstoppable force she felt moments earlier, and it wasn't just about Hercules either, it was about Autolycus, and Joxer and all her other friends, when she thought about them she felt that same force grow in her. They were resting their hopes and trust in her and from them she took all the courage she needed. She realized all of that without one single word being spoken.

After a few minutes her silent friend decided it was time to sleep, and with a nod of his head, made his way back to his sleeping roll. But Gabrielle wasn't tired that night, and opted to remain awake for a bit more.

Gabrielle wasn't the only one awake that night, besides Hercules there was one more person who couldn't sleep, because her thoughts and doubts where keeping her awake as well, and she was furious about it.

Somewhere a few miles south from their camp the Warrior Princess herself was pacing back and forth in her quarters. She was livid, she just had an encounter with the God of War and that left her with a bad mood. She went out in the cold night, passing a few tents before stopping near the ashes of a dead fireplace. If everything will go according to plan by this time tomorrow she will have the whole of Greece under her command. She will not tolerate any form of animosity towards her. She will unify Greece under her rule, and she will put an end to the chaos that has plagued this land for far too long. It was so close, she could almost see it. There, somewhere south of her was Athens, the last and most important free Greek city. If Athens falls, a domino effect will take place, fear will spread across the country and by then nothing could stop her plan. She scanned the horizon as a new thought entered her mind; she looked beyond the many tents scattered around the surface as she almost expected to see Gabrielle pop up somewhere in the middle of it, but soon the monotony of her camp made the best of her and she headed back to her quarters. Xena knew Gabrielle would never stop fighting her, and that she would probably try to do something to stop her, but the Warrior Princess had the utmost faith in her plan, and knew even someone like Gabrielle couldn't do much to screw it up, because it was already in motion.

Often her thoughts went to the blond girl that night. Xena knew full well that this was the turning point, there would be no coming back after tomorrow. She hated to admit it but she missed Gabrielle, a little part of the warrior missed that girl. She tried to suppress that part of herself, but it was a lost cause. She wondered once again where she was, what was she thinking about, and what she was doing, but her mind was set for the day to come. Xena knew what had to be done and was ready to take all the actions needed if the girl showed up.

Gabrielle never understood her, that was her biggest regret. Her remorse was that she never made the Amazon Queen see things the way she saw them, not for lack of trying, but she was simply too stubborn to be reasoned with! And because of that she would pay the price, if it comes to that. She wished to be with her just one more time, just the two of them, no soldiers, or commanders, no wars or gods. Just the two of them. She hoped Gabrielle would see the greater good in her actions, and prayed to the gods that after what was to come the next day, Gabrielle will have the strength to forgive her, but she highly doubted it.

She walked inside her tent and peeked at the familiar map laid on her table, just one marker left on it, just one.

A light breeze was able to raise the curtain of her quarters just enough for Xena to see a portion of the sky above the camp. She quickly reached the entrance to seal it but stopped, when looking above, she realized she could a particularly bright star among the many others dotting the night sky. Instinctively she traced it, finding beneath it one more star, and another, and another again, until she completed the figure that had formed in her mind. Suddenly she felt like someone punched her, as this was reminding her of one of the most beautiful memories she had with Gabrielle; when the two of them would spend countless hours imagining shapes between the stars far above. She hastily turned her back to the sky, growing in her heart was the realization that no matter what she'll do she will never be able to completely let go of the Amazon Queen.

And for the second time that night she left her tent, only this time she didn't stop. Argo was her first destination. She kept walking more and more, she did not stop even when the guards at the gates of her camp yelled at her. Then she mounted on her horse and proceeded north, in the night, with no destination in mind.

She rejoiced in the cold breeze of nigh that messed her hair, while riding to nowhere. She halted her horse abruptly when suddenly the grass plane in front of her left their place in favor of a thicket. She hopped down her horse and took a few steps in the vegetation when her warrior senses started to tingle. Immediately her mind switched into fight mode, and proceeded carefully towards the trees. The minutes went by, but the only enemy Xena had found were the tree roots undermining her stability every now and then, but besides them not a soul was to be seen.

 _And why would it be…_ She sarcastically considered, but before turning back the slightest of motions took her attention. She immediately lowered herself and looked more carefully near a tree no more than thirty paces away from her.

 _Impossible_

Her heart jumped in her throat, her breath become uneven and her hands were almost shaking from the pure boost of adrenaline she just had, for there, just in front of her, a short blonde girl was peacefully sitting under a tree. She stood there, frozen in time, for what felt like a lifetime, just watching.

She moved a few steps closer, her heart racing, her mind fighting over what she should do next. The girl moved, for a moment Xena feared she was going to see her, but luckily she just turned her head the other way.

But that was enough for her, the Warrior Princess wasn't going to take any chances. As silent as she could she went back to her horse, and soon after reached the military camp. Her mind was going at full speed with thoughts and emotions that she hoped to have lost months ago.

 _There must be no room for weakness._


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter 19_

Gabrielle woke up alone, among trees and plants. She slowly stood up, trying to keep her balance, because sleep was still fogging her mind. She removed a couple of leaves which had found their way into her hair during the night; she looked at her surrounding and a wave of fear swept over her.

 _Did I just oversleep?_

Nonsense, Gabrielle quickly reassured herself; she remembered that the others would have been looking for her if that was the case. After fighting back a yawn, she moved back to their camp and was relieved to find her companions there. As she moved across the sleeping bags she discovered only Hercules was up and ready. The rest of them were still fighting against the unavoidable sun light, except Joxer. He was still snoring, to her surprise.

"OUCH! What the Hades!"

Gabrielle would later admit to herself that she didn't mean to kick him that hard to wake him up, but wasn't still sure whether to confess it or not to the poor man, who was still glaring at her every now and then from his horse. They had quickly packed their belongings after wakening, and were now riding hard towards Xena, to battle.

This was the day Gabrielle had feared would come. She would be going toe to toe once again against the Warrior Princess. Only this time she was ready, and she wasn't alone. Thoughts of the Warrior woman were enough to send shivers down Gabrielle's spine, but she kept going nonetheless. She needed a diversion to get through Xena's camp safely. They had considered this during their travel south. The obvious solution was to create a diversion big enough to distract the guards and allow her safe access to Xena's camp. She kept repeating that Hercules and Iolauswere perfectly capable to play that role but she was having a hard time shaking off all of her fears. At the same time Autolycus, Joxer and the two Romans were supposed to sneak inside the city, reach the city council and help them barricade the city, as she knew the romans had experience in battle, and could be decisive to buy them more time. Also if she and Hercules failed, they were the last line of defense for the city of Athens. She prayed Hercules and Iolaus could give her enough time for her plan to work.

But in the silence of their ride, where only the horse's hooves could be heard, Gabrielle started to realize more and more that it wasn't in fact Autolycus and the others that she was worried about, but herself. She knew, deep down in her heart, that they would do everything to accomplish their mission. She was starting to wonder if she could do the same as well. If it came to her and Xena will she be able to carry on? Will she be able to do what must be done?

She looked inside herself to find an answer somehow she knew she always had, from the very first moment. She had to face Xena, she had to stop her once and for all.

Looking up she saw Hercules riding next to her. For a brief moment she made eye contact with him, but she quickly glanced down. Her sight was soon lost in the brown horsehair.

She was so focused on her horse that she hadn't realized that the head of the column had stopped abruptly. She would have crashed into the Romans if her horse hadn't stopped on its own.

She looked up once again, this time in front of her.

Along the road she saw one single hooded man standing in the middle of the road, successfully impeding their travels.

Glancing briefly at her friends she moved forward, Hercules close behind her, and reached the hooded man before them.

"You may go no further." the figure spoke loud and clear to the group as they approached him. This caused some apprehensive looks among the latter. They tried to peek at the man's face beneath the hood but they couldn't quite see it. After another nervous look the blonde girl dismounted from the horse, and carefully, with Hercules on her heels, approached the figure on foot.

"And who are you to say that, may I ask?" She retorted, as she shortened the distance between them.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and heard two words whispered in her ear "Careful Gabrielle". It was the big guy warning her, but for what? There were seven of them against one. As she was pondering that, the illusion before her vanished in a ball of light and where the hooded man once stood now there was a very familiar face indeed.

"Recognize me now, Gabrielle?" Ares glared at the girl, his arms open as if to embrace them.

 _So much for the plan,_ the Amazon almost laughed, as she realized they hadn't considered him in their calculations. It was too late for that now, no time for more thinking, or more planning. Xena was somewhere there, further along the road. As she stretched a bit of her neck, she could see the city's wall over the god's shoulder. They were so close. The Warrior Princess was about to lay siege to the city, perhaps she already launched an assault. Although Gabrielle saw no columns of fire or any sign of battle, but she was too far away to be sure. It could take days to take the city after all, if not more.

Gabrielle still had some hope left for the inhabitants. Perhaps they could still stop Xena before the bloodshed would start, just like they planned, but they had to move quickly.

She looked at the God in front of her, who seems almost disappointed by her silence, when a small grin emerged on her lips. New plan.

"Hey Hercules, you wouldn't mind entertaining our friend here for a while, would you?" she asked softly, with a little smile still on her face. She was quickly thinking her next steps.

"Not at all!" He smiled back, as he stepped forward.

There, in the middle of the dusty road the two men faced each other a few feet away. Silence descended over the street as the two men stood still, studying one another as predators ready to jump at the first moment of hesitation or weakness that was shown.

"This is the endgame, brother" Ares mocked, with his infamous grin and his arms raised. The other man remained quiet, the two were still waiting for an opening.

"For too long I've tolerated you" The God of War said hatefully, anger rising in him "You were just a whim of our father, nothing more!" This time he took a step towards the big man.

They looked at each other in the eyes. No one moved.

"You've lost this time little brother, it's already over and you don't even know it yet" The God of War said, his grin turned into a full smile but he had to be careful not to reveal too much.

"You sure sound pretty secure of yourself. Why shouldn't this time finish like all the other times where I kick your butt and you go back crawling to your little temple?" Finally the big man spoke, and he could see he was driving the God mad with just a few words. It took every single ounce of control Ares had on himself to not go and strike Hercules with devastating fury. Ares could see now that he was losing this little game of theirs, and while he always loved to make fun of his opponent before a fight he realized it really wasn't working his way, so he did one of the few smart things in his life, he shut up, and prepared to strike. Hercules must have noticed his sudden change in behavior for he too got into a defensive position, his feet holding fast to the ground. And silence descended upon them once again. The only thing that moved was some dirt raised from the road by the dusty wind.

It was Ares who broke the wait first, his temper clouding his better judgement and full of rage he moved against his half-brother. In a quick fluid motion he unsheathed his sword to strike, but instead of hitting his rival his blow met only air. He quickly recovered his footing without breaking his balance and got ready to strike again, harder and faster against Hercules. The big man was quick to deflect his sword, metal hitting metal, but Hercules wasn't ready for the fist that connected with his ribs moments later. However he seemed to have taken it well, for he didn't lose any ground, but stood strong against the God of War. While the two of them separated from their first round they didn't notice the group of people sneaking away as focused as they were on each other.

* * *

Soon they decided to follow the plan and split. Gabrielle went for the Camp with Iolaus while Autolycus and the others made it for the city. As soon as the camp was on sight she waited in the bush for Iolaus to do his job and create a diversion. As they have decided he would set on fire a few of the tents placed In the border of the camp, and as soon as the smoke was seen by Gabrielle that would have been the signal for her to move.

Soon enough she could see black smoke rising from across the camp, on the farther side from her. She moved out of cover and sprinted towards the tents. part of her was surprised once she realized that no sound was coming from there, no yelling or screaming, nothing.

There was no sign of trouble. It was awfully silent. Something felt wrong. She could feel it in her bones. She covered the last few steps that divided her from the first few tents and reached them while running slightly crouched. Gabrielle stopped to listen. Waiting for some sort of alarm being shout. But there was none.

No sound, no movement, nor shouting. There was only silence. As Gabrielle walked across the camp, she started kicking random items she found on her way, pieces of armor, a few helmets, boots and dirt, until she reached it. A look was enough for the Amazon to recognize Xena's tent, the position, size and colors were screaming Warrior Princess on their own, and Gabrielle knew her very well. She watched her next steps very carefully trying to not make a sound, her mind going through thousands of thoughts in a few seconds.

 _Where is everyone? Why no one is here? Where is she?_

Gabrielle reached the entrance, looked back at the empty camp for one last time, and with a bit of trepidation rushed inside the tent.

* * *

The triumph laid before her. _victory and glory_ , she thought, as she entered the city unopposed, with her army marching proud after its leader. No one decided to fight the Warrior Princess. The battle was over before it even started, all she had to do now was marching towards the center of the city, gather there all the populace and declare herself emperor of Greece.

She imagined herself In front of all the peasants and citizens that will do nothing but watch her in awe and glorify her as she deserved. And they shall sing, rejoice and pray to the gods for their days in the darkness are finally over and glory awaits, as now a capable leader will lead the people of Greece out of the pit where decades of incompetent men brought them and all the world will tremble and admire her new empire, and all shall bow before her as she is the mightiest of all.

"My liege!"

A soldier dared interrupt her thoughts. It was one of her Taxiarhos. Her smile was forced off her face, because her dreams were now fading away, as the dust and clatter of the army returned.

"What?" She almost spat out. Not in the best mood. However she did smile in approval when the soldier almost fell backwards from the mere strength of her voice.

"My liege it's the Boule." he answered quickly.

"The Boule?" She glared at him.

"The city council, Warrior Princess, they couldn't prevent you from entering the city but they still refuse to give up their power." He then continued, "They've barricaded themselves inside the temple of Athena and refuse to surrender."

A large smile now found her way on the warrior princess lips. _So I will have a fight after all._

"Very well…ahem…what's your name again soldier?"

"Methodius your grace."

"Well Methodius, be kind, do tell them that the Warrior Princess is coming." She finished speaking and dismissed the soldier, who took a deep bow and started running towards the temple.

Xena kept going forwards, her horse steady despite all the chaos around it. She looked at people of Athens, rich and poor alike, all with their faces poking out from windows or alleys, all trying to get a glance of her. Many simply reached the border of the streets, some bowed to her when she passed, others run away. And a few looked at her with contempt, but she couldn't care less. They were all sheep to her, and none could stand up to her and she continued almost completely ignoring them.

Only something odd did catch Xena's attention shortly after. It was just for a brief moment, a glimpse, but she did see something quite unusual for this place, and was sure it was no trick of her mind. She tried to scan the mob to try and look better, but somehow what she thought she saw was no longer visible. It was hidden from her, yet she felt it was still in the area. Probably watching her from the distance, yet she couldn't quite place it.

Xena became more aware of her surroundings, but wasn't worrying yet. For the first time since she entered the city she noticed that the place smelled. It was an awful smell, a mix of horse, urine and other ungodly perfumes that she could almost identify individually and not one of them pleased her. The roads seemed to get muddier the more she proceeded forward, the houses got closer and closer, effectively narrowing the road until she reached the footsteps of the Agora where the city market found its away among the buildings in the lower part of the city, because it was shadowed by the Acropolis directly above her, and where the temple of Athena was founded and located.

Here Xena dismounted from her horse and, followed by a handful of soldiers, commenced her ascent to power.

* * *

"I told you to be more careful! She almost spotted us you dimwit!" the King of Thieves spoke between his teeth, almost screaming to his moronic friend.

"How could I possibly know it was her! I mean we were supposed to have the easy part of the job! And now SHE'S HERE!" Joxer tried to explain.

He was quickly interrupted by the thief. "I know, shut up!"

"Would you two stop that, please?" The taller Roman spoke, exasperated by his newfound companions who, once again, were starting to fight with each other.

"What do we do now?" Joxer asked.

"What you mean what do we do now? Plane's still the same..." Macro interjected "...More or less…"

"Look, we know what Xena's up to ok? She's going after the people in the temple of Athena, they don't stand a chance, but with us, we could at least help them out." Cato tried to reason with the group, although they weren't mostly ignored him.

"We weren't supposed to rescue them, you two were supposed to help with the defense of the city, to buy us more time!" Autolycus said, pointing at the two Romans.

"In case you didn't notice, she's already inside the city!" Macro insisted, pointing his hands at Autolycus nose in a menacing way.

"Thank you captain obvious the next time y-" But the king of thieves couldn't finish his sentence because his tall Roman friend was quick to silence Autolycus with Macro's hand in front of Autolycus' mouth. Macro received an hateful glare from Autolycus, who tried to say something in protest, but it came out muffled. Autolycus considered for a brief moment whenever to bite the hand or not. Before Autolycus could try to speak again, he was hushed and the other hand that wasn't muffling him, was now pointing across a nearby alley, where a soldier was passed by them, but failed to notice them. With a careful look they all realized it wasn't one of the city guard, but instead it was one of Xena's soldiers. An important one judging by the uniform. Realizing the danger they were all in now, they laid low, with their eyes following the man on his walk towards the acropolis. After a brief discussion they decided to carefully follow the man across the many steps that led to the upper city.

After a difficult and long walk they reached the top, where they found an empty plaza amongst the many temples of the city. There, they could see the soldier walking across the empty and silent space until he reached the biggest temple; the one dedicated to the founder of the city itself. Taking a longer route they avoided the plaza but instead sprinted around one of the other minor temples, until they again sighted the man. They were closer to him now. They also took a good look at the main entrance of the temple the soldier was contemplating and noticed a series of wooden barriers meant to block the entrance to everyone. The soldier must have seen it as well, for after a short pause he started yelling towards the barricaded doors and to whoever was inside the temple, his voice was loud and clear.

"Xena, the emperor of all Greece has arrived and demands to see the people's council of Athens, now!" He shouted clear. No answer came from the building, which seemed to be deserted.

"Get out now or face the wrath of my emperor! Get out now and we may spare you from excruciating pain! Followed by an agonizing death! This is an order!" he tried again, and this time was met with a response.

"We do not answer to you, messenger, you have no rights to give orders to us! We are the elected council of Athens, therefore we are the citizens itself, and we do not recognize your 'emperor' as ruler of this land."

"Very well then, stay there. It will be your tomb!" the soldier spoke his final word. He didn't wait for any response before turning on his heels and leaving the place at a steady pace.

In the shadow, unseen and unheard by the soldier, voices where talking. Just outside the temple of Hera, four men were now discussing on their next actions but no one's idea seemed to prevail over the other.

Few minutes later they had decided almost unanimously their next course of action.

 _That's it, that's the dumbest thing I've ever done_. Autolycus considered nervously as he started to climb on the temple of Athena, high from the ground, too high for his liking. He couldn't believe that he agreed to this madness, but sure the romans were convincing, he thought. He looked down, but soon realized his mistake, as his legs grew weak from the fear, and he had to use all his strength to keep the grip on the cool marble surface of the temple. _I wanna go back!_ His muscles were tightening for the fear, which caused any sort of movements to be extremely hard to accomplish. _Come on Autolycus, you can do it._

"You gonna stay there all day or what?" A scream came from below him, he didn't move, this time he did not look down to answer but the shout was enough to encourage him to move on, although reluctantly. Just one little step at the time he proceeded until he reached the top part of the temple, where a fine line of figures where chiseled carefully in the rock, but they were of scarce interest for the king of thieves. As soon as his two roman companions reached the edge, he gave them a hand to help them out on the last step, yet Macro still had found some reason to grouse. Looking in the distance he saw Joxer hidden in the high grass growing next to one of the many temples that crowded the area. He was supposed to warn them once the warrior princess would move closer to their position, which could have been very soon for all they knew. _We are screwed_ , he briefly thought once he realized that literally every moron passing by could very well spot Joxer, as his stupid helmet was obviously sticking out of the grass.

"Ok, come on we need to move" Cato spoke, and the thief was brought back to the reality of their current situation.

Quickly forgetting about Joxer, the men took a few careful steps across the eaves until they reached one of the many windows that run along all the upper side of the temple in intervals of about four paces. It was a small rectangular window with no glass, nestled in a grid of wood, to let the air and light pass by. They could hear some buzz coming from inside the temple, but couldn't see any movement from their point of view. There were people inside for sure at least, Cato briefly considered as he was looking at his friend.

"Please" the taller roman begged his companion, along with a hand gesture motioning towards the wooden frame. After a nod, Macro unsheathed his sword carefully and began to quickly saw the wood to create enough space for them to safely rappel down on the temple floor.

After a few moments the central part of the frame gave up to the sword work and a space large enough for them to pass was made. The first one to go was Cato, he grabbed the cord in his backpack and tried his best to safely knot it on one of the wooden pieces protruding from the external frame. Careful not to cut himself on the chipped wood, he gave the cord a couple of yanks to check on its stability and started to lower himself on the internal wall of the temple, using his feet as anchors and slowly descending few inches at ever little jump until he reached the bottom.

He was soon to be followed by Autolycus, while Macro would help them on the way out, so he remained steady on the roof of the building, waiting for their returns. In the meantime, waiting for the thief, Cato started to look around himself. for the first time he realized he could hear some voices echoing in the distance, yet he assumed his presence was still unnoticed by the occupants of the temple.

He jumped and turned as fast as possible when a loud thud surprised him from behind.

He saw Autolycus falling for the last few feet, ungracefully meeting the ground before time. Cato tried to steady himself, yet his heart was still racing a bit. He glared at the thief, who in returned tried an awkward smile and then they moved on.

No one heard them, or at least that's what he thought. He didn't notice that the voice they heard before were now gone, there was only silence now.

It was darker than he had expected, too dark for his liking the king of thieves realized. The windows above him weren't providing much light, but that wouldn't necessarily be too bad. He took a few steps forward silently. He could see a few paces in front of him the smoke of a torch, spreading shadowy images across the whole floor. It was mesmerizing.

They were on the side hallway of the temple and the wall before him was secluding them from the rest of the temple. He walked until he reached the nearest doorway and crossed it silently, reaching the core of the temple.

The king of thieves didn't go far as suddenly his vision turned white and a sharp pain found his way across his body. He didn't realize what was going on, he only felt the coolness of the temple floor under his fingers. He instinctively reached for his head as the throbbing pain seemed to be coming from there. In the same instant, unseen to him, another hand was ready to strike upon the thief, yet it never made contact with him. Quickly moving, Cato had stopped the unknown man from striking his companion, successfully halting the attack and surprising the offender, as he didn't have spotted the roman.

"Stop!" Cato exclaimed, trying to calm down the other man. But he wasn't alone, soon Cato realized that other men where there, all dressed in fine white tunics, decorated with a purple pattern across all the borders. He counted twelve men in total.

He raised his hand trying not to look menacing and to his relief they seemed to be stopping their actions.

"Who are you?" the man who strike first asked, holding a piece of wooden plank in his hand and playing nervously with it.

"We are friends, we are here to rescue you" Cato explained, with a hint of anger in his voice.

"You are here to rescue us!" the man repeated, mocking the roman. Some men sneered at his comment, but many remained serious. Cato ignored it for the moment and helped Autolycus on his feet. After a brief check on his friend, he moved closer to the stranger.

"Now you shut up and listen very well" He said, and continued.

"As you probably have assumed by now, the warrior princess is coming for you all and we are running short of time, so we need to get the hades out of the here now" he pointed his finger at the man in front, pocking him repeatedly in the chest with enough strength to make him wobble. Yet the man was now smiling.

"You are too late kid, get lost. Go back from where you came from and try to save yourself, if it has to end with our deaths today so be it"

"What?! But it doesn't have to end like this at all!" Cato tried to reason, exasperated.

"How so? If it's not today it will be next week, or next month. I will not have the last days of my life running away, fighting for every second of it. I'm old, lad, we all are" He said, speaking for his group.

"We can offer you protection, we can hide you, don't give up like that."

"What's so hard to understand? There is no hiding here, there is no fighting. She will only bring death. In facts, I pity the ones who will have to live under her rule" He smiled sadly.

"But we can offer you protection, and a safe passage for roman lands. Once the plague of the warrior princess is crushed you will be reinstated to your position, as governors of the city, under the blessing of the Roman Senate of course."

At the same time the roman spoke to the Council of the City, Autolycus was starting to successfully fight back the pain. He had gained enough awareness of his surrounding to hear what was being spoken. He looked quite surprised at the words of his friend, yet decided it was best to express his doubts in a different moment, as right now time was running out and it was not the proper place to discuss it.

They kept talking and while the fog in his mind was dissipating he was still having some trouble focusing.

"Why are you giving up like this?" Cato asked, almost resigned. "Why are you all giving up like this?"

"Is there no other way?" The roman almost whispered softly.

"No"

"It has to end here" another man spoke, "it's in the youth that you need to search for the strength to defeat the evil, we can only go as an example, but no more than that. let our sacrifice not be in vain"

He smiled.

A loud thump suddenly shook all the temple. Dust was raised from the furniture all around them, while they almost lost their footing. So much for Joxer giving them a lead.

They were breaking the main temple doors down. Time had run out.

"No no no" Cato almost screamed and grabbed the older man by his shoulders.

"We need to go, now!" he pleaded. The old man didn't move, he only smiled at the roman.

"There is no more time for us, we are ready, whatever the end is"

Another loud Thump jolted the temple.

"Just, kid… remember us" the first man last spoke. They were dismissed.

Autolycus finally had come into senses, to fully realize what was going on. He looked at his companion and they both realized it was time for them to leave, as fast as they could. There wasn't much time for anything else.

The third blow was dealt to the doors, they were picking up the pace between hits outside and the temple was shaking once again.

Autolycus and Cato finally turned their back to the Council and started to run. Just before they crossed the doorway for the outer hallway they looked behind at the men who so bravely were going towards their destiny and with the realization that nothing could be done anymore they reached the rope.

Two more blows were dealt to the doors before they gave up, and soon the place was stormed by Xena's best soldiers, but they already made it out of the temple and were running away from the Acropolis unseen.

Making sure they weren't seen by the soldiers, they collected Joxer, and rapidly the three men started their descent towards the city.

Once they reached the final steps of the path leading from the Agora to the city they bumped in the most hoped person: Gabrielle.

They almost screamed her name in happiness, yet it took Gabrielle a moment for her to realize what was going on and who was calling her, but once she saw the familiar faces she was relieved to see them.

"What took you so long?" Autolycus asked impatiently.

"Well I've been delayed" Was the immediate answer, a bit of sass could be detected in it, but not by everyone.

"Define delayed" He pressed on.

"Well… I guess having to face Xena's lackey falls into that category" she deadpanned.

"What?" Cato asked, taking the place of the thief near the amazon.

"The tent was a trap, Xena knew we were coming, by the time we arrived she had already found a way inside the city"

"But how? How could she move this fast?"

"It's literally impossible I don't understand it either. We did nothing wrong, we had a somewhat decent plane, I mean it was like we had thirty percent of a whole plane probably, and surely we were supposed to have enough time! Yet here we are, constantly on the back foot of the warrior princess"

"It's unnerving!" Macro exclaimed.

"Well there must be a logical reason for that! It's not like she could just travel in time!" Cato explained.

Silence followed that, a long piercing silence. It soon unveiled their fears and doubts.

"No…" Autolycus spoke after a while, connecting all the dots, they all did, who sooner, who later. Except Joxer, he was still trying to find out the meaning of the word 'lackey'.

 _Must be some sort of food… or a seasoning maybe!_

"So, what you are saying is…" Cato started "Xena has the Chronos stone" Gabrielle concluded sadly.

"But it can't be! We've searched for that cursed stone already, it couldn't be found" Autolycus was angry right now, as all his time spent searching the stone was fruitless, and he realized it now.

"It was stolen" Gabrielle corrected him "we never knew who it was"

"I still don't think it makes any sense" the thief insisted, yet with much less belief this time.

"I have a feeling that before the end of this day we will have the answer to all of the questions" she answered to his friend. A moment of silence fell on the group before Macro spoke.

"Where is Hercules, by the way?" he then asked out of the blue.

"Ah... where is he?" Gabrielle agreed to ask, she didn't know the answer to it as well. She suddenly remembered Iolaus as well. They had split before entering camp, but after the ambush she could not find him. She started to think about the big man again "I wonder where he is" She spoke, more to herself than the group.

* * *

"Where am I?" Hercules looked around himself, surprised to see the forest around him vanish, replaced by a dark building made of stone, which he had never been into. It looked like a temple at first sight. The god of war did not answer, instead, he started laughing at him.

"Where am I?!" he asked once more, menacingly. He moved closer to the god which seems to worry him as he stopped laughing and turned serious.

"Here" Ares answered, as it was obvious. He opened his arms to show Hercules the surroundings. He realized his first guess was correct, he was in a temple. He could see behind the God an altar adorned with countless skulls on the upper edge, just below the surface. The more he looked and the more he was convinced to be in one of the many temples of Ares.

"Home" The God of War continued, "My home" he specified.

"Why have you brought me here?" Hercules asked, careful not to let any emotions transpire.

"Well my dear brother, for once I didn't want you to interfere with my plans" Ares explained simply, but it was unnerving for his mortal brother, who tried to hide it.

"So why don't you sit back, relax, and enjoy the place?" He smiled "after all, I don't think you'll go anywhere soon" Ares took a step back. Hercules realized something was going very wrong, and in one fluid motion he tried to tackle the god of war, but instead grabbed a handful of smoke that went through his eyes as well. Once he cleared his vision he could not see the god of war anywhere. The God of War was gone, leaving him alone in the solitude of the temple.

* * *

"What if it was Draco?" Autolycus asked, they were all brainstorming, yet there seems to be no easy solutions for this one. It felt like they were all missing some major thing that was laid right before them, but none of them could see.

"We already went through that" he couldn't have taken it, Gabrielle was sure of it, but at this point she was ready to believe at anything.

"Hey you! What's going on here?"

They were so focused on their brainstorm that failed to see the group of soldiers passing by, and that now were proceeding towards them. It was too late for them to hide.

"We were… we were…" Autolycus started babbling but was cut short by the soldier. They could see the panic starting to spread across their faces. Macro and Cato were ready to fight, Autolycus and Joxer a little less. Gabrielle was losing it.

 _No no no, we're done, if we fight we'll have the attention of the whole city. Zeus, I'm not even sure we can get rid of them fast enough to avoid their other friends…oh Gods what do we do now. Oh, their getting closer. Why can't anything go well for a change?!_

"Ohi! What the hades you think are doing here in the dark? Conspiring against the new emperor?" They started laughing.

Gabrielle raised her face, as she couldn't believe this new unexpected turn of events. Were they just mocking her group?

"Us? Conspiring?" The thief joked back, joining their laugh, although very nervously.

"You better not be" he stated, "in fact, By the Emperor's command you and all the other people of this city are to be rounded up into the agora, where she will be crowned Conqueror, before the city and the Gods. She's got the old men of the council with her, so that's going to be fun" He smiled as he was savoring the possibility of an upcoming public execution.

"I Heard they were hiding in the temple of Athena the old cowards" Another soldier interjected but was interrupted by the one who seemed to be the captain of their group.

"Come on, move. We will escort you there" he cut short, while pushing Gabrielle and the others towards the Agora. They had no choice but to follow their lead, as to create a mess right now wasn't probably the best idea, and on the plus side, it seemed they were not recognized by the soldiers.

They kept moving with the group of mercenaries on their heels, always keeping an eye on Gabrielle and the others. The more they walked towards their destination and more crowd they encountered. Thousands of people were being dragged and escorted to the main square by Xena's soldiers.

Gabrielle almost felt suffocating from the dust moved by all the people in the narrow streets, which didn't help her at all. Finally, they reached the Agora and the small streets and houses of Athens were replaced by a large open space filled with tents, stands and small shops. Gabrielle fought her way in the crowd for a closer look at the place, she could see in the very center of the Agora, although not very well, a wooden stage but couldn't really make out who was there. She kept elbowing her way closer to the stage until she could clearly see Draco standing there among a few other guards. She looked back but was disappointed when she couldn't see the rest of her friends. They were probably lost in the crowd. She noticed on the outline of the square hundreds of guards presiding all the entrances. Suddenly the crowd went quiet, and after a quick investigation she discovered the reason. On the Stage, escorted by foul men were the chained people who once had been the city council. They were principally old men, dragged on the floor against their will to what Gabrielle realized to be the execution square. They all had fine dresses, yet the hardness of their last hours was reflected on their clothes, as spots of dirt, blood and scraps could be seen from there. Slowly she brought her hand to her mouth in disgust. She had to act yet knew that nothing could be done this time.

Many people had started screaming in protest, some even threw things at the stage. Many tried to climb it but were pushed back by the guards, the agora was alive and protesting this Tyranny, for a moment Gabrielle thought about fomenting the riot to help save the old men but before she could even start to form a plan, an inhumane silence had fallen over the Agora. Everything became eerily steel and it felt like thousands of people had stopped breathing at the same time, as such was the silence.

And there she saw her, rising on the wooden platform in all her evilness. The Warrior Princess was dressed like a Goddess, Gabrielle Thought quickly, but it was her, nonetheless.

She walked Proud and tall on the scene, passing the men chained, not even bothering to look at them, but instead she looked disgusted at the crowd gathered before her. She looked as evil as she had ever been

"Today is a glorious day" She yelled at the crowd, loud and clear. "I've finally put an end to the sickness cursing this country"

"For far too long you had to live beneath weak men, who only cared for themselves instead of the people. Rejoice! Rejoice as those days have finally ended." Her speech was now captivating the crowd, but Gabrielle was disgusted, and for a moment she feared what might happen.

"I have brought peace and prosperity throughout our nation, finally now…- "

"You murdered a whole village on your way here!" Gabrielle could not stop herself, the words came out of her mouth before she could even realize it. She covered her mouth, but it was far too late. The warrior princess was enraged by the words spoken, yet it seemed she hadn't spotted the speaker, as she was still scanning trough the mob.

Xena stood there, looking at the crowd, an evil grin spreading across his face

"I did what had to be done, I will not stand here judged for my actions" Xena yelled with all the strength in her lungs.

"only through war and violence we can achieve the peace for our time. Only with swords and blood"

"But at what cost?" another voice spoke from the crowd "it's our blood you've spent in your conquests…-"

"Enough!" She screamed.

Lighting suddenly strikes at her feet. Many people backed away frightened, some even fell to the ground. From the ashes of the lighting a figure merged, imposing as ever. There, once the smoke dissipated was the God of War himself standing. Many people were confused by the sudden apparition, afraid, several of them bowed, others followed their example. Few of the people remained on their feet.

 _Oh no Ares… what happened to you, Hercules?_

"I am Ares, The God of War" He thundered, presenting himself, with all eyes on him. Xena was smiling at to him, Gabrielle noticed. It was infuriating to her, although it wasn't completely rational.

"Xena" the God said, looking directly at her and smiling.

He moved his hands quickly in circles, as to cast some sort of spell. Suddenly two items materialized on each hand. On the right hand was a thin silver crown but on the left hand, Gabrielle noticed with horror, was a fine scepter with no doubts the Chronos Stone resting on top of it.

The God took a step closer to Xena, who bowed before the God, almost leaving Gabrielle mouth hanging.

Down on one knee she looked up to see Ares smiling at her before he spoke.

"In the name of Ares, Son of Zeus, God of War, I hereby Name you, Xena, The Warrior Princess, Conqueror of Greece and Emperor of all the people" He said clearly in front of all. The God himself laid the crown upon her head and then handed over the scepter. Confidently, Xena reached it quickly and with a grin, she place it in the pam of her hands, holding it horizontally, feeling every inch of it on her skin. She was enjoying every single moment. She raised herself and looked upon the silent crowd and smiled. It was done. She raised high the scepter in her hand so everyone could see it.

She remembered the little conversation with the few peasants she had early and turned his smile into an evil grin.

"In case you have something else to object, I'll give you a demonstration as to what happen to those who oppose me" She nodded his head, and immediately half a dozen soldiers gathered around here and turned to the prisoners. Gabrielle understood immediately what was going to happen next.

The god of war smiled once again at his pupil, its job was done. Just like he arrived he disappeared after a quick nod to the warrior princess and left the show for her alone.

Each guard took one prisoner and dragged him on the front spot of the stage.

They all unsheathed their swords at the same time.

Gabrielle sprinted forward as fast as she could, making her way across the crowd. He was but a few steps away from the wooden structure when a hand from behind stopped her. She turned, ready to fight, only to see Cato. Behind him was Macro and Autolycus as well.

"it can't end this way, it's not fair!" She protested, on the brink of crying.

"I know" Cato said, trying to comfort her, keeping a hold. "you know it's not going to end well, do you?" He said sadly.

"Yes" was the short answer of Gabrielle, yet the roman saw the determination in her eyes. Slowly he loosened the grip on her arm until he lost it, then gave her a quick nod with his head.

Moments later everything turned into chaos.

It all started with an apple. Gabrielle saw the person next to her carrying on her back a straw basket with apples inside. A smile came on her face as she stole a few of them and took a step towards the soldiers. With careful aiming she tossed the first apple as hard as she could, hitting the closest soldier square in the face. The confusion was written all over the poor man's face, but he couldn't recover as once again something hit him in almost the same spot.

A powerful yell from the crowd was enough to start the riot. Xena and the soldiers soon discovered many people where carrying with them the remaining food that had yet to be sold for the day. Suddenly all sort of things started to rain upon the people on stage. Apples, peaches, apricots, bread and fishes. It was her best chance. Using the diversion, she climbed on the stage, and in one fluid motion she helped herself up by grabbing one of the soldiers and tossing him on the ground, gaining the momentum to get on the stage. And that's when it happened. Following her lead more people started to climb, outnumbering the soldiers. The first one to follow was Cato, and he was already engaging in a hand to hand combat with one of the guards.

It was in that very moment that something unique happened. A miracle. The people of Athens had found their courage. Waves of men were now assaulting the structure, while the soldiers were starting to waver.

Gabrielle screamed, encouraging the people near her, who started fighting fiercely against the invaders. But in doing so she had drawn a lot of attention. In the chaos she could see blue eyes staring at her in surprise. Xena was standing there, unmoving. still trying to shake away the surprise of the sudden attack. She was looking straight at Gabrielle. The surprise wore off and she spring into action. They were about 20 feet apart and many fights were exploding around the two of them, but she was gaining ground quickly. Gabrielle had few time to act. She reached the chained men and rose them from the ground, their hands were chained, she noticed, but nothing was done to their feet, so they could still move at least. Quickly she looked back and saw amongst the many men fighting around her a couple of them who seemed to be smart enough for the task she had in mind.

"you two! We need to get these men to safety" she said, pointing at the prisoners "Take them away, come on!" The two men stopped fighting, looked at Gabrielle for a moment and then nodded. Shortly the two men had called to their aid a few others around and were starting to move them away from the fighting. Gabrielle looked at them with a smile, but soon noticed that more soldiers were coming from the outskirt of the Agora and were quickly making their way towards them. Worst Xena was now a couple of men away from her. She looked back, to make sure the prisoners were successfully escaping the place. Once she turned to face Xena she only heard a metallic sound and to his horror saw the tip of a sword merely inches away from her eye. Xena was going for the kill, but the sword was stopped by another one, a shorter one. She looked for his owner and found out it was Macro. He just saved her life.

"it's time for you to go" He said to the girl and placed himself in front of her, between Gabrielle and Xena.

"Who are you?!" the warrior princess asked pissed at the bulky roman.

"Just a friend" he answered with a smile. He was giving Gabrielle a window to bring the other men to safety, but she didn't like where this was going. Conflicted in her decision she soon made up her mind, this might be her only chance to succeed.

Without wasting time, she turned her back to the fight and quickly got off the stage with a jump. It was just a few feet high, so it wasn't really a big deal, yet she impacted hardly on the ground. Before moving forward, she looked back once more to the pair behind her. They had just started engaging, but Xena wasn't focused on the fight as she was still trying to reach Gabrielle, yet her opponent was worthy of a fight and wasn't making it easy for her. The last thing she saw was Cato joining his friend for the fight. After the quick glance she moved on, across the little stands and wooden markets of the Agora until she reached the two men she spoke with earlier, and the rest of the prisoners. They were fighting to try to force the blockade formed by the soldiers holding on the perimeter. She moved quickly to the front and with swift moves she got rid of two of the soldiers with a piece of wood found on the ground, successfully opening a small way out for the group. She looked proudly at her doing and examined the piece of wood In her hand. After all it wasn't too different in shape and size to her very old staff. Next to her suddenly was Autolycus dragging Joxer behind, who was trying to take on the whole army on its own.

"What the hell is going on?" The King of Thieves asked enraged, at the Amazon Queen.

"We are freeing those men" She answered quickly as they had no time to waste on chatting.

"We are doing what?!" Autolycus screamed trying to top the clamor around them, but was ignored by the girl, who kept moving forward and away from the fighting. Resigned, he decided to follow her.

By the look of things, around them more and more soldiers were now joining the fight. They slipped quietly into the narrow streets, full of people running away as well. She silently sent a prayer to the two romans left behind to cover her escape and moved on.

They run as fast as they could, considering the prisoners, until they were well far behind the chaos, and the noise was all but gone. They could hear every now and then a shout coming muffled from far away, but besides that it was completely silent there.

 _Well, I guess we did it! What do we do now?_

She looked at all the men around her, as their group was quite large, and asked them if they had a safe place to go. Several people nodded and started to make their way home after thanking her. She looked at the prisoner, one of the men who helped her free them offered to escort them to his shop, as he was a blacksmith, and there they removed the chains.

With the sound of metal against metal, and the chains loudly dropped on the floor, Gabrielle started for the first time to realize what was going on. And her mind was busy with the warrior princess.

 _She must be livid right now,_ she smiled at that thought. _we freed the prisoners right under her nose, she must be so pissed._

"Gabrielle" a voice brought her out of her thoughts "we cannot thank you enough for what you've done"

"Ah now you thank her" Autolycus interjected, kind of pissed. The old men looked at him, and recognized him immediately. He looked down half ashamed

"Once you are on the brink of death you will find many of your former opinions rather stupid..." He half smiled, and Autolycus decided to let it go.

"But you my dear" He said to Gabrielle "you do realize that you are now a beacon of hope for the people, against the tyranny that has cursed these lands" He pointed at her. "Now many will want to follow your example, and they'll see you as a leader amongst men"

Gabrielle did not know what to make of it. She realized that perhaps this was where her path was leading her, this was what she was destined to be. A beacon of Hope against the darkness of the world. She looked at the people in the room, at Autolycus and then at Joxer.

She realized she always knew what her destiny was, what she had to do. An idea was starting to form in his mind, and she liked it. She was the spark that would led to something greater than her. She was going to fight the Conqueror of the World.

"We are going to start a rebellion"

* * *

 **AN:** this is the end of the first book. After this chapter an epilogue will follow, where some of the things left unanswered will be explained. I thank you all for staying with me throughout this adventure, and I hope you enjoyed! For any question, suggestions or really anything, you can either leave a review or contact me on Tumblr as well! (alexander-eolo). Hope you had fun and I'll see you for the epilogue! Cheers.


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